Israel Police and the Central Elections Committee rejected claims by the Likud party of attempted voter fraud in the Israeli Arab sector on Tuesday night, after the Likud Party claimed that Israeli Arabs were attempting to use violence to force fake results in the Knesset elections after polls closed.
The party claimed that it had asked the police chief and Central Election Commission to send police reinforcements to all the polling sites in the Arab sector due to alleged violence and threats against representatives of parties from the Netanyahu-led bloc. "The Likud warns against a large-scale attempt to violently falsify the election results," said the party.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with the heads of his bloc after the polls closed and warned them to look out for any reports of "fakes."
Netanyahu posted a tweet on Tuesday night claiming to show Arabs acting violently at a polling station. The video shows a number of people speaking Arabic and standing together in a polling station without any visible conflict.
Israel Police denied that they had been contacted by the Likud Party, but added that they were already reinforcing sensitive sites.
The spokesperson of the Central Election Committee rejected the Likud party's claims, saying that the committee had checked with police and was not aware of any unusual incidents at polls in the Arab sector.
"Given that the counting has only begun at this time, there is certainly no basis for baseless rumors about so-called 'fakes' in this or that sector," said the spokesperson.
Central Elections Committee warns Likud trying to delegitimize results
Officials in Central Elections Committee had expressed concerns in recent weeks that the Likud Party was laying the ground to delegitimize the election results and attacking the credibility of the committee.
The chairman of the committee, Yitzhak Amit, expressed concerns that the Likud's representative in the committee, Ilan Bombach, was implying that the results of the election would not be trustworthy.
"I very, very much hope and believe that, God forbid, we don't see here any buds of what could be interpreted as delegitimization of the election results in advance," said Amit to the representative, according to Israel Hayom.
Army Radio also reported that Amit told the representative "I hope that what we see from you is not, God forbid, the beginning of a planned delegitimization of the election results. You complain about public distrust in the election process, but your sender (the Likud) is part of the creation of the distrust."
According to the protocol of a closed meeting of the committee, Amit additionally referenced statements by Bombach, saying "I think that all of us, everyone who values Zionism, who values democracy, who values this country, should be careful about words."
"How did Attorney Bombach say it? 'There are concerns, so maybe you should allay them.' Who is spreading these concerns? So I think that we, especially we, as members of the presidency, as members of the central committee, need to be very careful," added Amit, according to Israel Hayom.