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Meretz leader Chaim Oron votes
Photo: Herzl Yosef

Meretz says ballots tainted with Lieberman's name on back

Elections Committee receives 68 complaints of Election Day irregularities; Yisrael Beiteinu argues there is a shortage in its ballots in various polling stations, Kadima says Likud activists tampered with ballots in Kiryat Bialik

Allegations of irregularities in Tuesday's general elections surfaced just hours after the polling stations opened: The Meretz party filed a complaint with the Central Elections Committee claiming the party's ballots at a Jerusalem polling station were tampered with.

 

A Meretz voter arrived at the polling station and found that one of the ballots had Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman's name written on the back of it. Such a ballot would be disqualified if cast.

 

Police were looking into the complaint. Following the incident Meretz instructed its activists across Israel to inspect all the party's ballots in each polling station.

 

Yisrael Beiteinu, for its part, complained that many polling stations had run out of the party's ballots, while the National Union party claimed that its ballots were removed from a polling station in Bnei Brak.

 

Kadima claimed attempts to tamper with the party's ballots were made in several polling stations across the country, including the cities Ramat Gan, Ariel, Nes Ziona, Ofakim and Ashdod.

 

The complaint said police arrested people suspected of tampering with Kadima ballots in four polling stations in Kiryat Bialik alone, and according to Kadima activists, the suspects were operating on behalf of the Likud party.

 

The Central Elections Committee received 68 complaints of alleged irregularities by 12 pm.

 

Also on Tuesday, police informed extreme right-wing activist Baruch Marzel that he was forbidden from entering Umm al-Fahm, where he was to chair a local polling station.

 

Knesset Member Arieh Eldad, who was set to replace Marzel as head of Umm al-Fahm's Ballot 12 polling station, asked the police to escort him out of the city, saying he had "other ballots to visit."

 

Eldad arrived in the city accompanied by mass police forces. His presence in the polling station was sanctioned by the Northern District Police, but nevertheless, it caused a riot outside the polling station.

 


פרסום ראשון: 02.10.09, 13:22
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