The mayors of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were set to win new terms as preliminary results from Israel’s delayed municipal elections trickled in, AFP reports.

The early results also showed that ultra-Orthodox parties won nearly half the vote in Jerusalem city council contests, primarily due to low turnout among other blocs.

The ultra-Orthdox make up around a third of Jerusalem’s one million population, and they traditionally vote for political parties that advance their tight-knit community’s interests.

Palestinian residents, who have the right to vote in municipal elections but not for Israel’s parliament, make up around 40pc of Jerusalem’s population.

However, most of them have boycotted municipal elections since Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.