Rachel Azaria
Rachel Azaria,Hadas Faroush, Flash 90

Kulanu MK Rachel Azaria said that she had decided to drop out of the Jerusalem mayoral race in order to ensure that a haredi candidate did not win the elections in October.

Azaria announced on Wednesday that she was dropping out of the race and threw her support behind Likud MK Ze'ev Elkin.

"Supporting [fellow challanger]Ofer Berkovitch was natural, but I went with Ze'ev to win," Azaria told Army Radio.

Azaria hit back at contentions that she had cooked up a deal with Elkin to run in order to take away support from Ofer Berkovitch, contentions which swelled following news that Elkin will pay her campaign debts.

"These are not debts, but the return of campaign expenses - and that's acceptable, and the reports that I got a political job under Elkin are wrong," she said.

Following Azaria's decision to leave the race, haredi candidate Yossi Deitch called on the haredi public to unite behind his campaign."I am trying to do everything to bring haredi unity, even at these moments," he said.