Israel Police Say No Evidence Backs Likud Claims of a 'Stolen' Election

Israel Police on Thursday dismissed claims by Likud that the Knesset election had been "stolen," saying there was no investigative or intelligence evidence to back the allegations.

In a statement issued Thursday morning, police said election day had passed with only a small number of unusual incidents related to electoral integrity, even when compared with earlier elections. "It should be emphasized that there is no investigative or intelligence evidence to support the claims," the statement said.

The police response followed a Wednesday accusation by Likud that Arab parties had taken the election through widespread fraud, bribery, intimidation and ballot manipulation. The party demanded that law enforcement authorities open an immediate investigation.

"The elections in the State of Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the destruction of the Jewish state through serious criminal offenses involving bribery, threats, violence, forgery, and the use of prohibited software to mobilize voters," Likud said in its statement.

The party listed a series of specific allegations. These included thousands of envelopes containing cash placed alongside ballot slips for Ra'am, and threats and violence directed at members of polling station committees. Likud also cited multiple voters entering voting booths together, voting under duplicate identities, and discrepancies between the number of envelopes and the number of registered voters.

In addition, the party alleged that prohibited voter mobilization software had been used.

The allegations have not been independently verified. No evidence showing that Arab parties systematically manipulated the election results has been made public.

The exchange sets the claims of one of the country's major political parties against the assessment of the national police force, which said its own investigative and intelligence work had turned up nothing to support the accusations.