Likud files 1,200 complaints alleging election irregularities in Arab towns

The complaints included allegations that individuals outside polling stations instructed voters whom to support and distributed cash and fuel vouchers to those voting for the Joint List or Ra’am.

By Efrat Forsher, TPS

The Likud party accused Israel’s Central Elections Committee of failing to address more than 1,200 complaints alleging irregularities at polling stations in Arab localities during the recent election.

The complaints include allegations of bribery, voter intimidation, ballot irregularities, and identity fraud.

However, the committee maintains that the reported incidents did not affect the distribution of Knesset seats.

The complaints were collected by Likud representatives and polling station committee members, primarily in Arab towns and cities. Sagi Keisler, who headed the party’s Election Integrity task force, told The Press Service of Israel that approximately 2,000 people participated in pre-election training to monitor voting procedures and report suspected violations.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said Sunday that the allegations of election fraud under investigation showed no indication of having altered the results of last month’s vote.

Authorities are examining claims that foreign countries covertly financed the Joint List of Arab parties and separate suspected vote-buying in the Negev.

According to Keisler, the complaints describe alleged irregularities inside and outside polling stations, including claims that voters were offered cash or fuel vouchers in exchange for supporting particular parties.

He said the task force submitted complaints throughout election day, sometimes at a rate of four per minute.

“The volume of reports we received from our representatives at the polling stations was truly staggering,” he said.

The complaints included allegations that individuals outside polling stations instructed voters whom to support and distributed cash and fuel vouchers to those voting for the Joint List or Ra’am, allegedly in exchange for photographing their ballots.

Central Election Committee chairman Justice Noam Solberg, said after the results were submitted to President Isaac Herzog, “Public trust in the election process is a valuable asset. We all have the responsibility to maintain it. It is easy to destroy, very difficult to repair.”

A Likud-appointed polling station committee chairman in Rahat, identified as G., described to TPS-IL what he said were organized efforts to influence voters.

“We arrived in Rahat at 6:30 in the morning. People had already set up operations outside the polling stations, with tables stocked with envelopes, cash, and fuel vouchers. Everyone arriving to vote would stop at these tables, receive an envelope containing a ballot paper, and then go in to cast their vote. Upon exiting, they would receive cash or fuel vouchers,” he said.

“This didn’t happen with every single voter, but it did with a very large portion of them. There was a constant exchange of money and envelopes.”

G. also alleged that an armed individual offered him cash or fuel vouchers in exchange for voting for the Joint List and filming himself casting his ballot.

Another polling station committee chairman, Yaakov, who served in Nazareth, described similar alleged attempts to influence voters.

He said individuals outside polling stations instructed voters whom to support. “When a group of women arrived, they were heavily pressured and explicitly told who they should vote for,” he said.

Yaakov also alleged that polling station secretaries failed to verify voters’ identities and that some voters were accompanied into voting booths.

“I have often observed that polling station secretaries fail to verify whether the photograph on an identity card matches the person arriving to vote. When I asked why they don’t check, they replied, ‘We know them.’ They would enter the voting booth with voters, tell them whom to vote for, and take photographs inside—even though this is prohibited,” he said.

Other complaints described alleged irregularities in several Arab localities.

In Arraba, a complaint accused a polling station committee chairman of forging another member’s signature and filling in details on his behalf on at least 20 envelopes.

In Kafr Qasim, representatives reported discrepancies between two polling station secretaries’ records, with one allegedly failing to record individuals already listed as having voted by the other.

In Umm al-Fahm, a Likud-appointed committee member alleged that a polling station secretary signed 25 envelopes she had brought and distributed them to voters.

He claimed they contained ballots for an Arab party and that other committee members insisted on counting them despite his objections.

The chairman of the election committee, Judge Noam Solberg, said after the vote count was completed and the election results were submitted to the president: “Public trust in the election process is a valuable asset. We all have the responsibility to maintain it. It is easy to destroy, very difficult to repair. The political dispute should not end with the vote count. It will continue, and that is good. But we must agree on one thing: the election results, as legally determined, are binding on all of us.”

Solberg referred to the various complaints and the fact that the committee reviewed protocols from more than nine thousand polling stations.

“In places where a crime is suspected, the complaints and evidence will be forwarded to the appropriate investigative authorities, and the committee will monitor their review and investigation, as appropriate,” he said.