NEW YORK

New Yorkers are heading to the polls on Tuesday in a highly contested mayoral election.

Poll sites opened at 6 am local time (1100GMT) and will close at 9 pm (0200GMT Wednesday). Early voting took place from Oct. 25 to Nov. 2, with more than 735,000 ballots cast, marking a new city record, according to the New York City Board of Elections.

At the center of the race is Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, 34, born in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian parents and raised in New York from the age of seven. If elected, he would become the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor.

Mamdani, an avowed democratic socialist, has run a campaign focused on affordability and social services, promising free buses, universal childcare, city-run grocery stores, rent-stabilized housing, and a plan to raise the minimum wage to $30 per hour by 2030 from $16.50 currently.

All of this would be paid for, he says, by raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5% -- the same as in neighboring New Jersey -- as well as a 2% income tax on those earning over $1 million per year.

He has also pledged that he would order the New York Police Department (NYPD) to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he enter the city, citing the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against him over war crimes in Gaza.

Competing against him are former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, a rightwing community activist and radio talk show host.

Cuomo is running as an Independent after he lost the Democratic primary to Mamdani in June. He has since sought to cast himself as the best positioned to lead the city following decades of public service, including leading the state of New York during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A compilation of polling compiled by the Real Clear Politics website had Mamdani up by an average of 14.3%, a massive lead heading into Election Day.

Progressive promises draw both hope and hesitation

At the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, where Cuomo cast his ballot earlier in the day, voters expressed a range of views about the candidates and the direction of the city.

Philip Ellison, a lifelong Democrat, said he left the mayoral section of his ballot blank.

“The process of selecting a candidate for the Democratic Party is flawed,” he said, criticizing ranked-choice voting for producing “a candidate who is coming from the fringes of our party.”

Others voiced strong support for Mamdani’s progressive platform.

Mark Guerro, an 85-year-old Vietnam veteran, said he voted for Mamdani because “he is a man that is bringing a fresh breath of air into New York politics…always for the poor people, not for the rich billionaires.”

Danielle Copeland, 32, cited affordability as the top reason why she voted for Mamdani.

“Housing is getting extremely unaffordable,” she said, adding that she hopes Mamdani will “do a rent freeze” and make buses free to improve public transport.

Still, not all voters were convinced.

“I didn’t want a communist governing New York City,” said Ashley, who has lived in the city for 30 years.

Gunjan Prakash, 49, voted for Cuomo, saying Mamdani “got here pretty much because of being an influencer” and lacks experience.