Israeli police have rejected allegations by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party that this week's election was 'stolen' by Arab-led parties. 'Election day saw very few irregularities that compromised the integrity of the elections, including in comparison with previous elections,' a police source told several Israeli media outlets, as cited by The Times of Israel. 'It should be emphasized that there is no evidence to support these claims, either from investigations or intelligence,' the source added, in reporting carried by the Italian wire LaPresse on Thursday.
Source: LaPresse via The Times of Israel
The police response is a new development following the allegation itself, which Awaaz Punjab reported on Wednesday: Likud formally claimed the election was stolen through bribery, threats, violence, forgery and banned voter-mobilisation software, and said it was handing hundreds of testimonies to the police, the Shin Bet security service and the Central Elections Committee (CEC). The Times of Israel also reported that an official of the Central Elections Committee has rejected the fraud allegations. All of the underlying claims remain Likud's allegations, not established findings.
A separate inquiry is running in parallel. Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who chairs the Central Elections Committee, wrote on Wednesday to Shin Bet director David Zini asking the service to investigate alleged improper influence on the election through foreign funding 'from foreign entities operating against Israeli interests', and asking for findings within a week, according to reporting summarised by the Associated Press. The letter offered no specifics and did not name the Arab-led parties. Qatar has categorically denied interfering in the election or funding efforts to influence the outcome, a denial Awaaz Punjab reported earlier.
Local media projections put Netanyahu's bloc at 53 seats, the opposition parties led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot at 48, and the Arab-led parties at a record 19 in the 120-seat Knesset, with 61 needed to govern. About half a million double-envelope ballots — from soldiers, diplomats, prisoners and hospital patients — remain to be counted, and final results could come as early as Thursday evening. Turnout was reported at roughly 78 percent, the highest since 1999. Results must be certified by November 4, and the new Knesset is set to be sworn in on November 10.
President Isaac Herzog called it a 'sensitive moment', backed a full investigation and cautioned against tarnishing an entire community that sought to exercise its right to vote. Eisenkot called for an impartial investigation but said unverified allegations should not be used to question the legitimacy of the results or delay the new parliament. Yair Golan, head of the Democrats party, accused Netanyahu of attempting to undermine the results through a delegitimisation campaign — all characterisations by the politicians involved, not findings by any authority.
What happens next turns on two clocks: the Shin Bet's findings, due within the week Sohlberg set, and the certified final count, after which Herzog must decide whom to task with forming a government. Netanyahu remains caretaker prime minister, and neither main bloc can reach 61 without the Arab-led parties both camps have ruled out working with — the arithmetic that made the disputed vote politically explosive in the first place.