Israel’s election commission rejects Netanyahu claims of voting fraud

Move comes after attorney general blocks Shin Bet call to interrogate politicians from Palestinian-led parties

Israel’s election commission on Wednesday confirmed the final results of last week’s vote that stripped Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition of its governing majority, rejecting claims of mass fraud promoted by the prime minister.

The main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, said Netanyahu had launched a “pogrom against democracy” in attempting to hold on to power by discrediting valid votes and weaponising security forces against parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Hours earlier, Israel’s attorney general said she had blocked a demand from the Shin Bet security service to interrogate senior politicians from the Palestinian-led parties because she had not been presented with any evidence of wrongdoing.

“In a country governed by the rule of law, neither citizens nor elected officials can be interrogated without evidence that justifies doing so,” Gali Baharav-Miara said in a statement, after Haaretz reported on the attempt to target four politicians.

Election authorities on Wednesday presented the final results to the president, Isaac Herzog, after rejecting allegations they had been tainted by large-scale foreign interference and voter fraud.

“The review found no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results,” the Central Elections Committee said in a statement.

The body’s chair, Noam Sohlberg, said some “suspicions” were still under investigation but “they do not cast doubt on the election as a whole or justify delaying the election results”.

When the results were handed over, Herzog denounced racist attacks on Palestinian citizens who had turned out to vote at historic rates.

“I condemn the coarseness and racist expressions that we have heard recently,” he said. “I hold Arab society in Israel in great respect. I value its contribution to the country in every area of life, and its desire to integrate.”

Herzog will play a key role in the formation of the next government by choosing which politician has the first chance to create a coalition. He is expected to name Eisenkot, and the announcement could come as early as Thursday evening.

Late on Wednesday, the Palestinian grouping Ra’am said it would recommend that Eisenkot form the next government. The larger Palestinian grouping, Joint List, has said its priority is removing Netanyahu, so is expected to back Eisenkot as the strongest contender to achieve that.

A former leader of the Israeli military who lost his son fighting in Gaza, Eisenkot has secured the public support of all of the Jewish Israeli opposition parties.

However, negotiations could take weeks and Eisenkot warned of ongoing attempts to undermine trust in the election results. He accused Netanyahu of weaponising the security services against domestic opponents in an effort to hold on to power.

“The employees of the Ministry of Defense, law enforcement and the civil service in Israel are servants of the state, not the king,” he said in a statement. “Woe to anyone who abuses their authority and role for political considerations.”

The Shin Bet chief, David Zini, handpicked for the role by Netanyahu, had ordered the interrogations and sought to classify the investigation as a security file, which would have allowed harsher conditions including barring the politicians from having legal counsel.

Nadav Eyal, an Israeli journalist and commentator, said the public should brace for more extreme attempts to dismiss election results and discredit the leading opposition parties.

“The groundwork is steadily being laid for violence,” he wrote on X. “What you’re hearing breaking right now is the foundation of the legal and governmental orders in Israel.”

Netanyahu presided over a racist campaign targeting Palestinian citizens of Israel – about 20% of the population – and on election day began promoting the unfounded accusations of mass fraud now rejected by election authorities.

Ahmad Tibi, one of the most prominent and effective Palestinian politicians, was reportedly among those the Shin Bet sought to interrogate. He responded to the latest allegations, as news broke of sweeping victories for Democrats in the US midterms, with a swipe at Netanyahu’s fear of democracy.

“[The] attorney general is checking suspicion of ties between the Joint List and Democrats in the US,” Tibi wrote in a social media post. “According to the suspicion, in both cases the same sophisticated method was employed: people arrived in droves at the polling stations, cast a slip, and went home.”

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Source: www.theguardian.com