Certified election results will be presented to the president as scheduled, with nothing in foreign influence probe that could affect them, Shin Bet sources say

The official, certified results of Tuesday’s elections will be presented to President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, November 4, as scheduled, unnamed sources in the Shin Bet tell Channel 12 News.

The sources reportedly add that nothing in the information the security agency is investigating could affect the election result, in what is described as its “limited and focused probe” into alleged foreign state attempts to influence the vote.

The agency is investigating allegations regarding Qatar and at least two other countries, the report says, and is seeking to ascertain the sources of money conveyed to try to influence the vote, the routes by which it was sent, how much money was involved, and whether any Arab Knesset members knew anything about it, the report says.

Channel 12 further quotes unnamed sources in the Central Elections Committee condemning false assertions of widespread or systematic election fraud. “The claims about systematic intervention or stolen elections constitute political manipulation of the allegations that are being probed,” the sources say.

Earlier this evening, Dean Livne, the Central Elections Committee’s Acting Director General, said: “I don’t see a likelihood that [the allegations of foreign influence] will influence the results of the elections.”

The TV report says Shin Bet director David Zini informed the Central Elections Committee chair, Justice Noam Sohlberg, and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara several weeks ago that the agency was gathering material relating to possible foreign efforts to influence the election, and subsequently received Sohlberg’s permission to open an investigation under Sohlberg’s supervision.

It adds that Zini yesterday sought and received Sohlberg’s permission to update Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the probe, but that Zini had in fact already done so.

It appears that the arrests of three Ra’am activists on election day, who were found to have tens of thousands of shekels in cash, are not connected to the Shin Bet probe, Channel 12’s reporting indicates.

The three have had their remands extended and have provided explanations for the money, the TV outlet reports, citing law enforcement sources. It says their arrests were the result of calls to the police made by Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Ido Norden. The Prime Minister’s Office denies this.