Likud claims Israeli election was stolen as police find no evidence of systematic fraud

JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party has said Israel's 27 October election was "stolen" by Arab-led parties. Police say they have found no basis for a claim of systematic fraud, according to Israeli media reports cited by Republika.

Final official results were released early on Friday. The Central Elections Committee said Netanyahu's right-wing and far-right bloc won 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, short of the 61 needed for a majority. Likud remains the largest single party with 27 seats, according to Arab News.

The opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot won 48 seats. Arab-led parties took the remaining 19, the committee said. Netanyahu's bloc held 68 seats at its peak in the previous parliament, Arab News reported.

What Likud alleges

Likud said the election had been stolen in a statement that Arab News dated Thursday. Republika, citing The Times of Israel, dates a Likud statement to Wednesday, the day after the vote. The sources therefore differ on the timing.

"The elections in Israel have been stolen!" the party said, according to Arab News. It alleged that the purported interference was meant to enable a foreign takeover of parliament and bring down the right-wing government. Arab News said Likud gave no evidence for claims of foreign assistance.

Republika, citing The Times of Israel, said Likud listed several alleged offences. They included voter bribery, threats, violence, forgery and the use of software that allegedly broke the rules to raise turnout. The party also alleged that envelopes containing cash were handed out together with ballots for the Ra'am party. It further alleged intimidation of polling staff, double voting, and mismatches between voter numbers and ballot envelopes at some sites.

Likud said it had collected hundreds of testimonies and other material. It said it had passed them to the police, the Shin Bet domestic security agency and the Central Elections Committee, according to Republika. The party called for a thorough investigation.

Arab News also reported claims, circulated by politicians and Israeli media, that Qatar had funded Arab-led parties to finance vote-buying. The parties and Qatar denied the accusations. Arab-led parties also rejected Likud's allegations more broadly, Republika reported, and said Netanyahu was trying to question the legitimacy of their gains.

Police and election officials respond

Israeli police said they had no investigative basis and no intelligence supporting the claim that the election was stolen, according to Republika, which cited reports by The Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel on Thursday. Police said voting passed with relatively few incidents related to election integrity, even compared with some earlier elections.

Police have examined individual alleged violations. Reuters reported that at least seven people had been arrested in southern Israel since election day on suspicion of involvement in fraud, according to Republika. Republika's text was cut off before it described how those cases were being handled.

Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who heads the Central Elections Committee, referred the suspicions of foreign interference to the Shin Bet, Arab News reported. In a letter to the agency, he said he could not verify the allegations but considered them serious enough to warrant an inquiry.

The Shin Bet confirmed it was investigating suspected irregularities. It said the inquiry was not meant to "cast aspersions or place blame on an entire sector that went out to vote in a democratic and lawful manner," according to Arab News.

The committee said in a statement with the final results that some information circulating about the investigation was entirely unfounded. It said the inquiry would not affect the results submitted to President Isaac Herzog and did not concern any particular sector of the population. It has asked the Shin Bet for its findings within a week.

Political reaction

Eisenkot accused Netanyahu's camp of trying to delegitimise the result because it had lost its majority, Arab News reported.

Herzog called it a sensitive moment for the country and urged a full investigation. He also warned against tarnishing an entire community that had exercised its democratic right to vote, according to Arab News.

Reuters reported that Netanyahu stepped up his criticism of Arab parties after their gains. He questioned the validity of some of their votes but has not presented public evidence of widespread manipulation, according to Republika. Republika also said that, as of Likud's latest official statement, no evidence had been made public showing the alleged violations formed a systematic operation that affected the national result.

Coalition talks

Netanyahu remains in office while parties consider alliances and try to assemble a governing majority, Arab News reported.

The 19 seats won by Arab-led groupings, including Ra'am and the Joint List, could prove decisive if Eisenkot's bloc tries to reach 61 seats. Eisenkot has left open the possibility of cooperation with Arab-led parties, Arab News said. The report said such an alliance would be politically sensitive. Its text was cut off at that point.

Background

Arab citizens make up about 20 percent of Israel's population and are predominantly of Palestinian descent, according to Arab News. Republika described them as about one-fifth of the population.

Netanyahu and Likud campaigned against Arab-led parties before the vote and portrayed them as a threat to Israel, Arab News reported. Critics described this as an attempt to marginalise Arab citizens. Arab News said the attacks, together with public discontent over Netanyahu and his far-right government, helped drive unusually strong Arab turnout.

The Shin Bet's findings, due within a week according to the election committee, are the next formal step in the inquiry into the allegations.