Election committee chief says results could yet change

In announcing the results of the elections, Justice Hanan Melcer, head of the Central Elections Committee, says the tally is still subject to possible change before it is finalized and submitted to President Reuven Rivlin on April 17.

“We retain the right,” he says in a letter to the representatives of the Knesset slates that ran in the elections, “to examine the results using additional means at the committee’s disposal… so that they are still subject to changes and adjustments.”

Melcer says he rejected a last-minute appeal by the New Right and United Torah Judaism parties to hold off on publishing the results, because they are still subject to change and are not fully official until they are presented to the president.

He notes that 4,335,320 Israelis voted, from among 6,335,387 who were eligible (68.4 percent), and that 30,756 ballots were disqualified.