Likud claims election ‘stolen’ by Arab parties, demands investigation into alleged fraud

Claiming yesterday’s election was “stolen” by Arab parties, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party demands an investigation by police and the Shin Bet into allegations of widespread voter fraud and intimidation.

“The elections in Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terror and the elimination of the Jewish state through serious criminal offenses of bribery, threats, violence, forgeries and the use of illegal software to mobilize voters,” insists the Likud party in a statement.

The Arab-led political parties, Ra’am and the Joint List, which run in every election and hold seats in the Knesset, received a record number of votes yesterday, and are projected to win a historic high of 19 seats. That number means that both Netanyahu’s bloc and the Jewish-led parties opposing him will be far from achieving a Knesset majority.

Throughout the campaign, Netanyahu’s party said cooperation with Arab parties was illegitimate. In its statement today, Likud says it is giving the police, the Shin Bet, and the Central Elections Committee “hundreds of testimonies” and other evidence, including “thousands of envelopes with cash and Ra’am slips, threats and violence towards ballot committee members, multiple voters behind the voting screen, double voting, discrepancies between the number of envelopes and the number of voters, use of illegal voter mobilization software, and more.”

Likud demands a “thorough investigation” and an immediate response from the CEC regarding an investigation.

Earlier today, in an interview with Channel 12, an official from the CEC dismissed claims of fraud in the election.