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The results showed Netanyahu's religious-nationalist bloc losing
its parliamentary majority, while Arab-led parties made
substantial gains.
“The review found no evidence of irregularities that compromised
the integrity of the election or affected its results,” the
committee said in a statement.
The acting director of the elections committee, Dean Livne, said
its investigation examined every complaint “individually and
thoroughly,” but found no evidence to support allegations that
the election results were invalid.
The results, which are set to be formally certified Wednesday,
“accurately reflect the choices voters made at the ballot box,”
Livne added. A separate investigation by the Shin Bet
intelligence service into allegations of foreign interference in
the election is ongoing, according to a spokesperson for the
elections committee.
The elections committee has said that while allegations that
foreign actors may have sought to influence the election are
serious, it does not believe any such interference affected the
results of the election.
“Our position is that even if the suspicions are substantiated,
this would not undermine the integrity of the electoral process
or the election results as a whole,” the head of the committee,
Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, said Sunday.
Netanyahu’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
After receiving the certified results, Israel’s President Isaac
Herzog will begin to meet Wednesday with each of the parties
elected to parliament.
Following two days of consultations, he will choose the
candidate — most likely Netanyahu or his chief rival, opposition
leader Gadi Eisenkot — who he believes is best positioned to
form a coalition government, setting the stage for weeks of
negotiations.
Neither Netanyahu's bloc nor Eisenkot's bloc of allies secured a
parliamentary majority needed to form a new government. That
raises the possibility of an alliance between the two rivals or
an alliance between Eisenkot and some of the Arab-led parties.
If neither man can put together a government, the country would
hold a new election early next year.
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