Israeli election results to be certified despite ongoing foreign interference probe

Israel’s election chief rejects Likud petition to hold off on certifying election results after ordering the Shin Bet security agency to investigate possible foreign interference.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s Central Elections Committee chairman, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, on Monday rejected a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party to delay certification of the October 27 election results pending further information about an investigation into suspected foreign interference.

“Elections have results. Those results do not depend on the consent of the majority group in the outgoing Knesset, or its representatives,” Sohlberg wrote in a letter to Likud attorney Ilan Bombach, who serves as deputy chairman of the committee.

Bombach had demanded an urgent meeting of the committee’s leadership, with Shin Bet director David Zini participating, ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled certification of the results.

In his letter, Bombach argued that committee members needed to be informed about the scope of the investigation, what investigators had uncovered and which questions remained unresolved.

“The seriousness of the suspicions, combined with the lack of clarity regarding their nature and scope,” Bombach wrote, made it impossible to approve the results “as if nothing has happened.”

Sohlberg rejected the request, explaining that the Central Elections Committee has no legal authority to withhold publication of the election results because of an ongoing investigation.

Under Israel’s Basic Law: The Knesset, election results must be published within eight days of the vote. The committee’s responsibility is to verify the calculations used to distribute parliamentary seats, rather than determine whether the results should be accepted.

Sohlberg warned that allowing the outgoing parliamentary majority to prevent publication of the results would violate fundamental democratic principles and could effectively prolong the outgoing Knesset’s tenure.

He also rejected the demand for an investigative briefing, warning that disclosing confidential information could compromise the ongoing probe.

The Shin Bet, Israel Police and State Attorney’s Office are continuing to investigate allegations that foreign actors attempted to influence the election through illicit funding.

On Sunday, Sohlberg appeared alongside Zini and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in a public statement addressing the allegations.

“The elections for the 26th Knesset were conducted properly,” Sohlberg declared, adding that the results reflected the will of Israeli voters.

He emphasized that the suspicions were being investigated but that the information uncovered so far did not undermine the legitimacy of the election as a whole.

The controversy comes after Netanyahu’s governing bloc won 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, leaving it eight seats short of the 61 needed for a parliamentary majority.

Likud officials have alleged widespread irregularities involving Arab voting and foreign intervention, while police have said there is no investigative or intelligence basis for the broader claims that the election was stolen.

Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar party, accused Netanyahu and Likud of attempting to undermine the legitimacy of the election.

“This is a direct assault on Israeli democracy,” Eisenkot said, accusing the ruling party of conducting a campaign to discredit both the results and the Central Elections Committee.

Likud responded by accusing Eisenkot of attempting to prevent the truth from emerging regarding suspected foreign interference.

Sohlberg stressed that any legally authorized challenges to the results could be pursued through the courts, but that the election committee itself could not suspend the certification process.

The official results are scheduled to be submitted to President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, November 4, clearing the way for the next stage of government formation.

2026 Israeli electionelection interferenceIsraeli elections 2026Noam Sohlberg