Lahav 433, Israel Police’s Major Crimes Unit, is probing allegations of election fraud by persons on the election committee referring to the election for 21st Knesset, the last Knesset election.
According to a KAN11 News report released on Sunday evening by Roi Yunovsky and Michael Shemesh, the investigation includes taking statements by members of the election committee as it is feared that there was a ‘distribution of votes’ between the parties at the end of voting along with manipulation of the final tabulation of votes. According to a Chareidim10 News report, the focus of the alleged election fraud is the chareidi sector.
According to the report, what lit the red lights in the Central Election Committee were the results from some of the polling stations: For example, in Kisra-Sumei in the Western Galil, where there was a total of 600 votes, which were divided evenly among the parties, with 350 for Likud, 100 for Blue & White, 50 for Shas, 50 for Yisrael Beitenu, 30 for the New Right and 20 for Meretz. Statistically speaking, it is near impossible for the final votes to end in round numbers as they did, prompting committee officials to believe the votes were manually assigned, and the final results do not reflect the true results of voting in the municipality. In another case, there was a discrepancy between the actual number of votes and the final results submitted to the Central Election Committee.
In April, committee chairman, retired justice Chanan Meltzer turned to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and Acting Police Commissioner Moti Cohen with a request to launch a criminal investigation on suspicion the results in numerous polling stations were fabricated, primarily, in Arab and Druse communities.
In his letter, Meltzer made reference to a request from Likud alleging that members of the committee’s poll watchers representing Likud found numerous cases of illegal activity, alleging criminal activity regarding election results.
In the letter, the chairman of the committee clarified that according to the existing law, he could not, on his own initiative, inadvertently disqualify the result from the polling stations in question, and in any case, without a thorough criminal investigation, the evidence to date does not justify this in terms of evidence.
In addition, preliminary investigation by the Central Elections Committee raises suspicion regarding two additional polling stations; one in Kisra-Sumei and the second in Afula, where the recording in the polling station protocol does not match the registration in the ballot counting sheets and ballot slips counted from the ballot boxes.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
So let’s see. In an election where there is no such thing as district representatives (it is all by popular vote for a party), and over 4 million votes were cast, they are worried about a grand total of 600 votes?