Israel elections chief: Knesset vote ‘conducted properly’

Israel’s Central Elections Committee chairman, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, said on Sunday that the Oct. 27 Knesset election was conducted properly and reflected the will of the voters.

Sohlberg delivered the statement alongside Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief David Zini, noting that all three agreed with its contents.

“The elections to the 26th Knesset were conducted properly. Any irregularities are currently being examined. The election results reflect the will of the voters,” Sohlberg said.

He said “serious suspicions” involving foreign funding intended to influence the election were under investigation, but stressed that even if substantiated, they would not undermine the integrity of the electoral process or the results as a whole.

He said the investigation remained covert and relied on classified intelligence the details of which could not be disclosed at this stage. He also said most recent reports about the inquiry were incorrect.

“The claim that the evidence currently before us could undermine the election results as a whole is incorrect,” he said.

A joint team led by the Shin Bet, the Israel Police and the State Attorney’s Office will be established to investigate the suspicions, Sohlberg said. He will closely monitor the inquiry while the electoral process proceeds as scheduled.

Sohlberg stressed that his remarks did not call into question votes cast by Arab citizens, saying high turnout was welcome in every community in Israel.

Herzog similarly urged a full investigation while cautioning against tarnishing Arab voters as a community on Thursday.

In a post on X on Sunday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Zini had complained to Sohlberg that the Shin Bet’s legal adviser was “tying my hands” and preventing him from investigating.

Otzma Yehudit, in a statement posted on X by party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, criticized Sohlberg for declaring that the results would not change while the investigation was ongoing. The party claimed that only a few thousand votes separated Ra’am from losing a seat to the right-wing bloc.

The party also alleged that the Shin Bet’s legal adviser and the attorney general were exerting improper pressure on Zini and preventing him from completing the investigation, calling it a “cover-up by a politicized legal echelon.”

“We demand a full investigation, without a cover-up, without leniency and without predetermined conclusions,” according to the statement.

The official results will be published and submitted to Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday as scheduled, Sohlberg added.