Israel's Central Election Commission approves parliamentary election results after reviewing fraud allegations

Election results approved after review

The plenary session of Israel's Central Election Commission on Wednesday approved the final results of last week's parliamentary elections. According to the Israeli website Ynet, citing Anadolu data , 15 commission members voted in favor of the approval, two voted against, and 14 abstained. Notably, the decision did not receive unanimous support: the number of abstentions was almost as high as the number of supporters, reflecting the tension surrounding the approval procedure.

Fraud allegations and the commission's position

Earlier the same day, the commission announced that it had found no evidence that the integrity of the elections had been violated. The review was prompted by statements from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the right-wing parties of his bloc alleging fraud and manipulation during voting in Israel's Arab community. Commission chairman, Judge Noam Sohlberg, noted that certain aspects of the electoral process were still under investigation, but stressed that such suspicions 'do not call the elections as a whole into question.' Thus, the approval of the results does not mean the matter is fully closed: the investigation of specific incidents continues, but the commission has separated them from the overall legitimacy of the elections.