Judge disqualifies 2024 Acre mayoral vote over influence campaign

A Haifa court has disqualified the results of a vote for the leadership of the city of Acre in early 2024, finding in favor of a complainant who accused Mayor Amihai Ben Shlush of buying votes to win the post.

The judge orders that a new vote be held, but rejects a request to order Ben Shlush to immediately step down.

Ben Shlush and his deputy are currently under police investigation over allegations that they promised so-called vote contractors positions in city hall and assistance in winning municipal tenders in exchange for their support.

Vote contractors are political operators who run get-out-the-vote campaigns for candidates or have strong influence over how certain swaths of the public vote, such as via union ties.

Though the probe is ongoing, judge Tamar Naot Peri finds in favor of Ohad Segev, who lost to Ben Shlush in the election and had sued for the revote, saying that “there is an accumulation of data showing that a significant number of voters were illegally influenced, affecting the outcome of the vote.”