OMM Newsroom
Israeli police have found no evidence to support election-fraud allegations made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, while the Central Elections Committee sees no current grounds for concern about the vote’s integrity, Anadolu Agency reported, citing the Israel Hayom daily.
The newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said the committee’s assessment contradicted Likud’s claims of fraud at polling stations in Arab communities. Police also said there was no evidence to substantiate the allegations, according to the report.
Earlier on Wednesday, Likud claimed that Arab parties had “stolen” the election through bribery, intimidation, violence, forgery and the use of prohibited software to mobilise voters. The party also accused them of supporting terrorism and seeking the destruction of the Jewish state.
Likud said it was submitting “hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence” to police, the Shin Bet domestic security agency and the election committee, and demanded an investigation.
The committee confirmed it had received the complaint and was examining it as part of its routine review of election-integrity complaints from all parties.
The allegations came as the predominantly Arab parties Ra’am and the Joint List were projected to win a record combined 19 seats, leaving both Netanyahu’s bloc and its main rival short of a parliamentary majority.
On Tuesday, the election committee said there were no indications of systematic ballot tampering and that individual reports were being addressed immediately, The Times of Israel reported.
With nearly 90% of votes counted, Netanyahu’s bloc was projected to win 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, compared with 48 for the bloc led by Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot. Neither bloc had reached the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority.
The figures remained provisional, with hundreds of thousands of “double-envelope” ballots, including votes cast by soldiers and diplomats, still awaiting counting.
