Labor polls
Photo: AFP
Expose reveals concrete allegations of voter fraud in Labor primaries
Yedioth Aharonoth unmasks tape of observer testimony of threats, bribery in Arab town polling station; Barak's office: These are old accusations that were dismissed
"Sixty votes were legal, the rest were not," Moti Zaguri, an observer during Labor primaries said of the polls in the Arab town of Shaab, an expose in a Yedioth Aharonoth supplement revealed. He was recorded shortly after run-offs between Ehud Barak – now party chairman and Defense Minister - and Ami Ayalon on June 12.
"People were threatened… Vote counters tallied the votes… young children arrived and started to vote. They said, if you are with us, we'll beat you and kill you… Zidan Ganaim, chairman of the polling station, began to cooperate.
Earlier allegations
Investigation launched after party’s central elections committee chairman asked that police check whether integrity of elections was maintained in four Arab polling stations during Barak-Ayalon runoff
"He received NIS 5,000 (about $1190) from the vote counters… I have no party affiliation, but when I saw what was going on… I couldn't believe that such a thing exists in this country," Zaguri was recorded as saying.
Ganaim denied the allegations, saying in response, "I did not receive money or anything like it. The elections were fine."
But Zaguri's testimony is not the only one. The expose suggests plenty of room for suspicion of fraud during the Labor primary run-offs, in a number of polling stations in Arab and Druze towns.
Some witnesses reported individuals with no identification who voted undisturbed. Others reported voter fraud using the 'rolling envelope' method, where the same group of ballots was handed in a number of times.
Yet other testimonies recounted threats to polling station workers and observers, a video camera planted adjacent to one voting station, hundreds of signatures that appeared forged, even a sign requesting in Arabic, "please do not seal the ballot envelopes."
The phenomenon is particularly noteworthy considering that the minority votes of the Druze and Arab voters were those that determined the outcome of the close race for Labor chairmanship. In the absence of these votes, Ayalon led the race by 671 ballots (25,918 to Barak's 25,247).
The voting stations examined in the expose counted disproportionate support for Barak. In Shaab he received 228 of 231 votes (98.8%), in Yefia Zaka, he received 91.3%, in Shfaram 97% and in Julis, some 80 percent.
The expose further revealed that the chairman of the elections committee, retired judge Amnon Strashnov, did not sign off on the elections protocol officially.
Ehud Barak's office released a statement, saying "these are old allegations, which were examined by the party's election committee chairman and were dismissed."
