Update: Israeli Elections Chief Rejects Likud Bid to Delay Certifying Vote Results Nov. 4
Likud points to an unproven foreign-interference probe, while the committee says the law gives it no power to withhold results. Netanyahu also said he is open to a broad government if he leads it.
Learn more ›JERUSALEM —
Justice Noam Sohlberg, the Israeli Supreme Court justice who chairs the Central Elections Committee, on Monday, Nov. 2, again rejected a Likud demand to delay certifying the results of the Oct. 27 election, the Times of Israel reported. Certification is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 4, and must happen no later than eight days after the vote. “The Central Elections Committee has no authority to withhold the certification of the results,” Sohlberg wrote.
See where this is ›Likud lawyer and committee member Ilan Bombach asked for an urgent meeting before certification, writing that suspicions of foreign interference made it “impossible” to publish certified results. The allegations center on claims that Qatar or other foreign powers secretly funded efforts to raise Arab voter turnout. They have not been substantiated, and the committee says that even if proven, they would not be significant enough to change the outcome. The Shin Bet and Mossad are expected to finish their probe soon.
Likud has claimed the vote was “stolen” by non-Zionist Arab parties and said Gadi Eisenkot and the opposition were trying to stop “the truth from coming to light.” Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar party, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud of a “destructive and violent campaign of delegitimization against the election results.” Yair Lapid, the No. 2 in B'Yachad, said: “In a democracy, the winners form the government and the losers head to the opposition.” Vladimir Beliak, a B'Yachad lawmaker on the committee, noted that a leadership meeting was already set for 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Likud won 27 seats, the most of any party, but Netanyahu's bloc holds 53 of the Knesset's 120 seats, short of a majority. Jewish-led opposition parties hold 48 and Arab-led parties hold 19.
Knesset seats after the Oct. 27 election
Source: Times of Israel. The Knesset has 120 seats.
Netanyahu said Monday evening that he is open to a “broad national government,” a possible shift from his Oct. 28 vow to form a right-wing coalition. He insisted that he must lead it and would not abandon his far-right and ultra-Orthodox partners. He also said the public does not want a government that depends on Ra'am or the Joint List, which he claimed “support terror.” Yashar, B'Yachad, The Democrats and Yisrael Beytenu have all ruled out sitting in a Netanyahu-led government.
Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen told AFP that Netanyahu's government “cannot be replaced without coordination with the Joint List.” He met Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas on Monday and planned to meet The Democrats' Yair Golan, the only opposition figure publicly urging a governing partnership with Arab-led parties, on Tuesday.
What we don't know yet: The Shin Bet and Mossad have not released findings on the interference claims, and no one can yet say who will be able to assemble a majority in the Knesset.
