The Central Election Committee of Israel (CEC, for its acronym in English) announced this Wednesday that it has concluded its review of the election results and emphasized that it has found no indication of “irregularities” that could call into question the cleanliness of the legislative elections held on October 27.
“The monitoring operation concludes. All requests submitted by the factions were reviewed and no indications of irregularities were found that affected the integrity of the electoral process,” the agency said in a statement published through social media.
The CEC explained that the checks “covered all polling stations mentioned in the requests” and reiterated that “the operation report revealed no anomalies or findings suggesting a violation of the integrity of the electoral process or a alteration of the results.”
It also detailed that “the election results will be submitted today to the President of the State and formally published,” after a review of the ballots in more than 9,000 polling stations, close to 75% of the total, and an “exhaustive review” of the electoral material and documentation, including the ballots and the voter lists.
According to the agency, these tasks have been carried out over the last six days, “in morning and afternoon shifts,” with the aim of “ensuring that the counted and recorded results accurately reflect the will of the voters, reaffirming the commitment to transparency and public trust.”
The CEC president, Noam Sohlberg, highlighted that during this process “an unprecedented number of polling stations was examined in a meticulous manner” and added that “the scope and precision of the operation attest to the CEC’s firm commitment to ensure that the will of the voters is reflected with the greatest possible accuracy.”
For his part, the acting general director, Denn Livne, insisted that “every query submitted by the parties, the candidate lists and the population was examined in detail,” and stressed that the review has concluded and that the public will be presented with “results that have been carefully examined that faithfully reflect their decision at the ballot box.”
After that, the presidium of the CEC gave the green light to the election results. In that internal vote, the delegates of Yesh Atid and Azul y Blanco backed the approval, while the representatives of Likud and Shas chose to abstain, which forced Sohlberg to cast the deciding vote for its ratification, according to the newspaper "The Times of Israel".
This body is made up of five members—Sohlberg and four representatives of the main factions of the current Knesset—and, once this procedure is completed, the data will be sent to a broader committee with the presence of other political forces, whose deliberations usually have a mainly symbolic character.
The procedure thus enters its final stretch in a context marked by maneuvers by Likud of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition allies, who have tried to delay the official validation of the results by alleging alleged irregularities and fraud, accusations that have not been confirmed or supported by the CEC investigation.
Next, the agency will hand over the definitive figures to the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, who must begin these same Wednesday consultations with the leaders of the different parties to decide to whom to entrust the task of forming the next Government. The parliamentary landscape is complex, since neither of the two major blocs has its own majority.
The recount gave the first position to Likud, with 27 seats, followed by the opposition party of Gadi Eisenkot, Yashar, with 21. However, since no bloc reaches the 61-seat threshold, the possibilities hinge on an understanding with the Arab parties—which add up to 19 deputies—or on a right-wing pact that keeps the ultra-Orthodox formations out.