Netanyahu’s party claims Arabs ‘stole’ Israeli election

Benjamin Netanyahu’s right wing Likud party accused Arab parties on Wednesday of “stealing the elections”, as vote counting showed them heading for their highest number of seats in the Knesset. Likud said the election was “stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state”. It claimed to have evidence of “corruption, threats, violence, fraud, and the use of banned software to induce voters to vote”, though the party did not publish that evidence in the statement. The central election commission said about 93 per cent of regular ballots had been counted, equal to 85.6 per cent of all votes cast. On those figures the coalition led by Netanyahu, who is now outgoing prime minister, has 53 seats, while the coalition led by Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party, has 48. The Arab parties have 19, a record, and a majority in the 120 seat parliament requires 61. The commission said the results were not final but expected no change to the seat figures, while the remaining 7 per cent of regular ballots need further verification and will be added in the coming days. A further 480,000 ballots cast by military personnel, police officers and diplomats are also still to be counted. The leader of the Joint List said he was “ready to pave the way” for the overthrow of the government. The Times of Israel reported that the opposition wants to replace Likud’s Amir Ohana as Speaker of the Knesset with the support of the Arab parties.