From manual form to party website: where did the votes in the Jerusalem district disappear to?
An examination conducted by "Hayom" of a number of manual counting forms in the Likud primaries, compared to the data published on the party's website in the official Excel file, reveals, apparently, gaps in a number of polling stations in Jerusalem. The gaps concern both the voting for the list of candidates for the 26th Knesset and the candidates in the Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Shephelah district.
The results of the Likud primaries are causing internal turmoil after candidates discovered today (Sunday) gaps between the manual voting records at the polling stations and the official online results. Following the findings, a demand for a comprehensive investigation has arisen, and the issue will be brought tomorrow for the decision of the party's tribunal.
Ministers Ze'ev Elkin and Gila Gamliel, together with Knesset member Eti Atiya, arrived today at Metzudat Ze'ev to clarify the source of the differences between the manual voting forms in which the vote counts were entered, and the Excel file published on the official Likud website.
From an examination we conducted of a number of manual forms and their comparison to the official results, a clear picture of a prominent discrepancy emerges, mainly at polling stations in Jerusalem. At polling station number 25 in the capital, Knesset member Amir Ohana received 83 votes according to the manual record, but in the official file 145 votes were recorded in his favor. This trend repeats itself with other senior officials: Ze'ev Elkin received 46 votes compared to 78 in the file, Dudi Amsalem 59 compared to 101, Avichai Boaron 64 compared to 101, David Bitan 39 compared to 71, and Nir Barkat 42 compared to 74 votes.
Similar irregularities were discovered at polling station number 5 in Jerusalem. In the voting for the Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Shephelah district, candidate Shabtai Katesh won 24 votes in the manual form, but in the online file only one vote appeared in his favor. Erez Tadmor, who won in the district, received 54 votes in the manual form compared to 13 votes in the published file. At the same polling station, gaps were also found in the voting for the national list, when the numbers for Ohana, Elkin, Amsalem, Boaron, Bitan and Barkat changed by dozens of votes between the records. In addition, at polling station number 10 in the city (104110) it was found that Ohana received 38 votes in the manual form, while in the official file 68 votes were recorded for him.
The gaps do not necessarily indicate intentional election rigging, and it is possible that their source is typing errors, a disruption in data entry, or a difference in the way the forms were processed. However, the scope of the phenomenon justifies a demand for a thorough investigation by the Likud election committee, which will include a comparison between all the original forms and the published data.
Likud's response was not received.
