Looking happy and confident, Yisrael Ba'aliya leader and Industry and Trade Minister Natan Sharansky held a press conference in the Knesset yesterday to celebrate his party's success in the local elections.

"We're on the map and we're staying on the map," Sharansky said, using the catchphrase coined by Maccabi Tel Aviv captain Tal Brody after Maccabi upset CSKA Moscow at the European Club Basketball Championships in 1977.

Eighty-eight Yisrael Ba'aliya representatives were elected to 46 towns and regional councils, including two Druse representatives in Sajur and Rama in the North.