Ballot boxes - will seat count change again?
Photo: AP
Battle for more seats continues: Following the successful United Arab List-Ta'al bid to regain a Knesset seat due to counting errors, other parties have also launched a race against time to try and trace errors in the vote count.
The precedent set by the United Arab List-Ta'al party has stirred the entire political system, and set parties on a quest for errors in the voting protocols in a bid to gain extra Knesset seats
The deadline for appeals on the matter is Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. Head of the Central Elections Committee, Judge Dorit Beinish will then review the petitions, just before the voting records are transferred to the president.
Elections 2006
Ilan Marciano
Central Elections committee: Labor party loses Knesset seat, United Arab List – Ta'al gains one as result of errors; new seat arrangement means no Jewish majority for Olmert's 'convergence plan'
A senior Elections Committee official noted that "the gaps between parties have never been as narrow. It is reasonable we'll see changes in the mandate count by tonight."
One by one delegations on behalf of Kadima, Labor, Israel Our Home and Shas arrived at the Counting Center in the community of Shoham in order to reexamine the protocols. Shas members are convinced they will be able to get back the mandate taken from them in favor of the Likud. A special team was sent by the party to look into the matter in Shoham.
Meanwhile, Labor members expressed cautious optimism Monday noon over the possibility their 20th seat can be recovered following counting errors they discovered in a Herzliya ballot.
Kadima activists have also reported finding inaccuracies in voting protocols. A senior Elections Committee member said that "on the matter of examining the mandates between Lieberman and the Likud, no final decision has been made yet. It is very possible we will find further mistakes in the registry that would give Israel Our Home its seat back, at the Likud's expense."
Members of the National Union-National religious Party have also learned that while their party won 225 out of 531 votes at a Modi'in polling station, the votes were credited to the Shinui party. Knesset Member Yitzhak Levi asked Judge Beinish to look into more protocols, for fear similar errors have occurred in other places.