Sometimes, it appears that even simple matters result in conflict between government agencies in Israel. November 11th is scheduled as the date for upcoming municipal elections in cities around Israel, and the question is being posed regarding which agency is responsible to pick up the tab for placing armed guards in polling stations.
 
Officials in local government insist the funds must come from the national government, the Ministry of the Interior, which runs and oversees the election. Ministry officials of course are throwing the ball in the lap of local government.
 
Local government officials realized that ministry expects 165 municipalities to come up with NIS 4 million to pay for security in 7,700 polling stations around the country. The guards are responsible for more than preventing a terror attack. They are responsible for maintaining order and also to escort polling boxes which contain ballots from voting stations.
 
Paradoxically, the ministry insists the local government level has been informed as required but the Union of Local Government, the body representing local government, is unaware of any such notification.
 
“To instruct local government to undertake responsibility for the security is like having the cat watch the milk” explains Adi Eldar, who heads the Union of Local Government. He explains that the personnel hired by City Hall are expected to be objective and ensure no wrongdoing takes place at voting stations. This is a recipe for disaster Eldar explains. The national government must undertake the ‘poll watching’ aspect if the elections are expected to take place as they should.
 
Shashi Kashir, the Interior Ministry supervisor of the elections states that all polling stations are required to make certain there are poll watchers and security personnel. “They are confusing the matter with Knesset elections” he explains, when the responsibility falls on the ministry, not local government. “We met with local government representatives in July and at that time; they were informed to prepare for the November elections”.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)