Knesset member’s son suspected of tampering with elections

The son of a Knesset member is being investigated on suspicion that he tampered with votes during last week’s elections.

The suspect is an Israel Defense Forces soldier and is being investigated by military police, the Kan public broadcaster reported on Tuesday.

The soldier allegedly damaged or hid voting slips for the centrist Blue and White party.

He was not named by the media report.

The suspect denied any involvement and questioned the evidence against him, pointing out that it was forbidden to take photos or film in the voting booth under Central Election Committee rules. He agreed to take a polygraph test, the results of which would be available in the coming days.

The case was one of several investigations involving military voting stations, the report said.

Voter fraud became a major issue in the last elections after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly warned of alleged rampant fraud in Israel’s Arab communities in an ostensible effort to drum up votes for his Likud party.

There were several disruptions reported during the voting, Central Elections Committee director Orly Adas said at the time, many of them related to illicit filming at polling stations.

Police shut down three polling places in the Druze village of Yarka in northern Israel on September 17 out of concern for election fraud. Police had received a report about alleged attempts to stuff ballot boxes with voting envelopes.

In Sakhnin as well, a polling station was briefly shut over a fraud allegation.

During the April elections, Likud observers brought hidden bodycams into 1,200 polling stations in Arab areas; the committee barred it from repeating such a scheme on election day last week.

The committee deployed 3,000 observers last week to ensure voting proceeded legally and without disturbances. Some 20,000 police officers were also deployed to polling stations.