Clarifying Netanyahu’s voter fraud claim, Likud commits to ‘peaceful transfer of power’

Clarifying comments made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week in which he claimed, “We are witnesses to the greatest election fraud in the history of the country and in my opinion, the history of democracies,” his Likud party releases a statement saying that Netanyahu would nonetheless respect the outcome of the election if a new government is sworn in on Sunday.

“When Prime Minister Netanyahu speaks about ‘election fraud,’ he isn’t referring to the vote counting process in Israel, in which he has complete confidence. There is also no question about the peaceful transition of power. There always has been a peaceful transfer of power in Israel and there always will be,” the party says.

It says that Netanyahu’s claims of fraud refer to how Bennett broke promises to voters that he would not form a government with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and the Islamist Ra’am party.

“In doing so, Bennett hijacked votes from the right and shifted them to the left in direct contradiction to his pledges. If this isn’t fraud we don’t know what is,” the statement says. “Bennett’s actions are akin to US electors unilaterally switching the voters’ choice for president against the will of the electorate.”