Israel’s election panel rejects Netanyahu’s fraud claims, certifies results as coalition talks begin

New Delhi: Israel’s central elections committee on Wednesday rejected the allegations of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that there was widespread voting fraud, and certified the results of the October 27 parliamentary election, which stripped his governing coalition of its majority. The decision shifts attention to coalition negotiations, with opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot also falling short of the 61 seats required to form a government.

The commission found no evidence of irregularities that compromised the election’s integrity or affected its outcome after reviewing 9,069 polling stations, the Guardian reported. The committee chairman and supreme court justice, Noam Sohlberg, acknowledged that certain suspicions remained under investigation but said they did not justify delaying certification.

The full committee approved the results by 15 votes to two, with 14 abstentions. Earlier, representatives of Netanyahu’s Likud party and its ally Shas abstained during a separate vote by the committee’s five-member presidium.

The certified results gave Netanyahu’s bloc 53 seats, Eisenkot’s opposition alliance 48, and the Arab-led Ra’am and Joint List parties a combined 19 seats in the 120 member Knesset. Neither major bloc secured the 61-seat majority required to govern independently, leaving the Arab-led parties potentially influential in coalition negotiations.

Netanyahu and Likud had alleged that Arab-led parties stole the election, potentially with foreign assistance, following the governing coalition’s loss of its parliamentary majority. Eisenkot accused Netanyahu of undermining democratic institutions and using state security agencies against political opponents to discredit legitimate election results.

The controversy intensified following reports that Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency sought to question four senior politicians from Palestinian-led parties over suspected foreign interference. However, subsequent Israeli media reports said Shin Bet disputed that account, maintaining that investigators had sought to question individuals associated with the politicians rather than the politicians themselves.

The attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, opposed the proposed questioning, arguing that investigators had not presented sufficient evidence to justify interrogating elected representatives, the Guardian reported. Shin Bet chief, David Zini, had also reportedly sought to classify the matter as a security investigation, potentially restricting access to legal counsel.

The foreign-interference investigation remains separate from the election commission’s review, and certification does not mean every individual allegation has been resolved. Sohlberg warned that attempts to undermine confidence in the results posed “a real danger” to Israeli democracy, while maintaining that the outstanding suspicions did not affect the election’s overall validity.

Meanwhile, the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, received the certified results from Sohlberg at his official residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Herzog condemned racist rhetoric directed against Palestinian citizens of Israel, whose historically high electoral participation contributed to the gains made by Arab-led parties.

Herzog was scheduled to begin consultations with parliamentary factions at 5pm on Wednesday before deciding which politician should receive the first opportunity to form a government. Eisenkot is considered a potential first choice after securing support from Jewish Israeli opposition parties, although Herzog has not formally announced his decision.

Under Israel’s Basic Law, the politician entrusted with government formation initially receives 28 days to assemble a coalition, with provisions for an extension. Coalition negotiations could take weeks, and failure to secure a parliamentary majority could trigger another election early next year.