Israel’s election results will stand even if claims of foreign interference are substantiated, the head of the country’s Central Elections Committee has said, rejecting an attempt to cast doubt on last week’s vote. The Israel election results stand, according to the committee, and the official results are due to be certified this week.
Committee head Noam Sohlberg said in a video statement on Sunday, alongside the head of Shin Bet and the attorney general, that even if suspicions were substantiated, they would not undermine the integrity of the electoral process or the election results as a whole, according to reports of the statement. The statement came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party questioned the outcome, alleging without evidence that Arab-led parties which made significant gains in Tuesday’s poll “stole” the vote and received funding from Qatar.
Qatar has rejected the allegations as a disinformation campaign, according to reports. The main opposition leader, Gadi Eisenkot, accused Netanyahu on Sunday of launching an “orchestrated and organised campaign to delegitimise the results”, according to reports of his remarks.
The numbers behind the dispute
Tuesday’s vote ended in deadlock. Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats while the opposition bloc led by Eisenkot won 48, leaving neither side able to form a government alone in the 120-seat Knesset. Israel’s three Arab-led parties won a record 19 seats, putting them in a potential kingmaker position. Final turnout was 77.9 per cent, the highest since 1999, the elections committee said, according to reports.
Protests were held near the prime minister’s residence in West Jerusalem on 31 October, with demonstrators calling for a Jewish-Arab coalition government to oust Netanyahu, according to reports. Police said suspects connected to the Ra’am party, which won eight seats, had been questioned, but the elections committee’s position is that the result itself is sound.
What happens next
The official results are due to be submitted to President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, after which he will nominate a candidate to form the next government. Formal coalition consultations are scheduled to begin on 4 November, according to reports. The dispute over interference claims has therefore not changed the constitutional timetable — but it has deepened the political atmosphere in which coalition talks will take place, with the legitimacy of the vote itself now part of the argument between the blocs.
