Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party began preparations to challenge results at polling stations in Arab communities even before the polls opened this morning, Israeli media report, citing unnamed sources.
The Times of Israel writes that civil rights groups have expressed concern over Likud’s plan to send activists to monitor polling stations in Arab communities.
According to a report by the private television station Channel 12, Likud had already prepared a series of complaints and accusations of electoral fraud at those polling stations.
Netanyahu’s party was reportedly preparing to challenge the votes of women who come to polling stations with their faces fully covered, as well as to make claims that at certain polling stations there are separate voting times for men and women.
For this purpose, the party has reportedly engaged several thousand activists to monitor polling stations in areas where Arabs make up the majority of the population.
According to Channel 12, issues such as these are already regulated by the Central Election Commission’s regulations.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that in recent weeks, Netanyahu’s party has formed unofficial teams of paid activists tasked with observing voters in Arab areas, occasionally citing alleged electoral fraud.
The paper states that the task of these teams is to stand in front of polling stations in Arab towns, record data on voters, and report this information in real time to the party headquarters.
At the same time, Likud officials are preparing a campaign to follow the elections, which would focus on alleged electoral fraud in the event that Likud suffers a heavy defeat.
According to a source close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud members have considered and planned scenarios in the event of a major electoral defeat. Some individuals advocate launching a campaign claiming the elections were stolen.
There is no information indicating that the Israeli prime minister attended these meetings. Currently, it appears that senior party officials are planning this campaign as an option for the post-election period, Haaretz reports.
Other sources close to Netanyahu state that some party officials are pressuring him to implement the plan and that Netanyahu is considering the possibility.
This is not the first time Likud has planned to use the conspiracy theory of rigged elections to win over voters and spread distrust in the electoral process, Haaretz reports.
The Israeli newspaper writes that the system for recording Arab voters established by Likud represents one of the party’s largest investments in this election campaign, with costs estimated at millions of shekels, or hundreds of thousands of euros.
“Imagine a woman comes to vote wearing a burqa, and then, a few minutes later, another woman in a burqa arrives – maybe it’s the same person? We will try to check and determine that,” an anonymous Likud source told Haaretz.
However, Likud teams do not have legal authority to verify voters’ identities.
According to sources from Netanyahu’s party, it is quite possible that footage taken on election day will be presented as false evidence that the elections were rigged.
Given that the footage will not show the interior of polling stations, it will be difficult to legally challenge their dissemination, Haaretz writes.
The system was first used in the previous elections, is unofficial, and does not involve Likud representatives at polling stations, which is why it is not subject to the strict regulations of the Central Election Commission.
In addition to these special teams, other Likud observers across the country will report to the party on any unusual events, which is standard practice for any party in any election campaign.
However, it is planned that these reports will also be forwarded to a specially formed “election fraud fighting headquarters,” Haaretz reports.
Your perspective is part of the story
Start the discussion and be the first to comment on this story.