Israel’s legislative election results will not be cast into doubt by irregularity suspicions, electoral commission chair Judge Noam Sohlberg said on Sunday, while confirming an investigation, G4Media / Agerpres report.

“The suspicions presented to us are serious. We will examine them thoroughly,” he said, referring to claims from Benjamin Netanyahu’s camp of vote-buying with foreign funds. Even if confirmed, he added, that would not call into question the legality of the process or the results as a whole.

Last Tuesday’s vote gave a majority to neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor rival Gadi Eisenkot; Raam and the United List made striking gains (19 seats together). The outgoing PM’s camp accused them of fraud on Thursday; reports spoke of Qatari funds — denied by Doha and both lists. The commission asked Shin Bet to investigate.

With the Shin Bet chief and the state prosecutor, Sohlberg said suspicions concern foreign funding meant to influence the vote, possibly with a security angle, but the probe must not discredit the Arab community’s ballot. Likud criticised his advance conclusion that fraud would not have affected the outcome.

Police on Tuesday arrested three people with envelopes and cash suspected of buying votes for Raam — the party denies it. Netanyahu has 53 seats, Eisenkot 48; a majority needs 61. Official results go to President Herzog on Wednesday, who will then hand a mandate to form a government.

Image: Knesset Menorah, Jerusalem (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Sources consulted: Israel election not cast into doubt by fraud suspicions - G4Media.