Shas Chairman and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri ordered Interior Ministry Director-General Mordechai Cohen, who heads the steering committee in the municipal elections, to place cameras in the ballot secretaries in municipal elections, which as set to take place in less than four months.

Deri delivered the directive during a meeting at the Interior Ministry that discussed preparations for the local elections. The Interior Ministry noted that Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, during his tenure as Chairman of the Central Elections Committee, recommended considering cameras at polling stations.

During the meeting, there was suspicion of fraud at the polls on Election Day itself. For example, polling station staff who voted in the name of people who did not come to vote as well as other fraudulent events that took place after the vote, some involving vote counting.

Minister Deri said: “The purity of the elections and the reflecting the will of voters are the most important things in democratic elections, and we have heard of many cases in previous elections, that the voters’ will was forged by means of unacceptable actions at the polls.”

“In order to combat these phenomena, I want to place cameras in all the polling stations that will only photograph the secretaries, polling station staff, completely removed from voting, and in this way ensuring the purity of the elections will be preserved and of course the secret ballot of each voter protected.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)