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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party is sending paid teams to document Arab voters outside polling stations in Tuesday’s election and may use the footage to claim the vote was rigged if it loses, Haaretz reported.
Senior party officials have prepared a possible post-election "stolen election" campaign, and Netanyahu is considering it under pressure from several party figures, sources close to the prime minister told the newspaper.
There is no information suggesting Netanyahu attended meetings on the plan, and officials are treating it as a possibility for after Election Day.
The unofficial teams are set to stand outside polling stations in Arab communities, film voters and report to headquarters in real time, according to Haaretz. Reports from other Likud observers are also to be forwarded to a "fraud war room."
The system is among the party’s largest campaign investments, costing an estimated millions of shekels, with all team members recruited and paid, the newspaper said.
Because the teams operate outside polling stations and do not use official party representatives, they are not subject to the Central Elections Committee’s strict regulations.
"Suppose a woman comes to vote wearing a burqa, and then a few minutes later another woman arrives wearing a burqa, perhaps it’s the same one? We will try to check and verify this," a Likud source said.
The teams have no legal authority to verify voters’ identities, Haaretz noted.
Likud sources said it is not unlikely that Election Day videos will be distributed as false evidence of fraud, and that it would be difficult to legally block them because they will not show the inside of polling stations, according to Haaretz.
On election night in 2022, Likud’s Yoav Kisch told Channel 14: "We have dozens of cases of fraud, of harm to voting at polling stations in the Arab community." Likud won the most seats that year, and the claims faded.
"2022 was a trial run for the current election," a senior Likud official involved in Election Day operations said.
Israel’s Arab citizens make up about 20% of the population and could play a significant role depending on turnout. Arab-led parties could emerge as kingmakers if they back one candidate.
Polls suggest a tight race between Netanyahu and former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, with neither camp certain of the 61-seat majority needed to govern.
More than 7.3 million people are eligible to vote, including about 630,000 living abroad.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and official results are expected by Nov. 4. Parties need 3.25% of valid votes to enter parliament.
The Central Elections Committee said more than 95% of polling stations had reported opening.
Meanwhile, families of those killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack held a moment of silence at 6:29 a.m. in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, the time the attack began.
Yona Adam, whose daughter Mapal was killed at the Nova music festival, urged voters to "remember all those whose voices have been silenced."
"Let us take responsibility and bring about change, a state commission of inquiry, hope, healing and recovery for ourselves and our country," she said.
In Kiryat Shmona, a man kicked and tore down a poster of Eisenkot as polls opened.
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