Israelis won’t melt. We’re not sugar.

Israel National News announces all night election coverage, including a live TV broadcast and an up-to-the-minute election results page.

Strong winds surprised voters throughout the country as power outages wrecked havoc on Israel’s populace on Election Day Tuesday. Electricity was disrupted Tuesday afternoon in Petach Tikvah due to a power plant malfunction. In Hod HaSharon and Hevron, strong winds damaging electrical cables in the area left residents in the dark. Strong gales were reported in Arad, also causing a power outage in the early evening, while a rooftop blew off a storage shed in a north Jerusalem suburb.

Although gusty winds and rains might have discouraged some citizens from voting, Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni noted that freezing weather didn’t prevent Americans from voting on their Election Day this past November. Livni, who was returning home from the election booth in a Tel Aviv school, added that a few drops of much needed rain of blessing shouldn’t prevent Israelis from participating in the elections, which she feels are critical. “Israelis won’t melt. We’re not sugar,” she commented.

Despite Stormy Tempers and Tricks, Election Committee Chair is Content

On the other hand, a few stormy bouts on the way to the polls added to the energy of election fever. Police officers were called to break up a fight between Kadima and Labor Party activists at the entrance to Jerusalem. The police detained one of the Labor Party activists for questioning.

Several election irregularities were reported throughout the country. The Kadima party filed a complaint with the Central Elections Committee about a number of places across the country where its ballots either disappeared or were damaged. The abuse was alleged to have taken place in Ariel, Ashdod, Kiryat Yam, Nes Ziona, Ofakim, Ramat Gan, and Tel Aviv.

Police arrested Likud activists who were caught holding Kadima ballots taken from four precincts in a Kiryat Bialik school ironically called the Kadima School.

The Meretz-New Party list also complained to the Central Elections Committee that its ballots in the Arnona neighborhood of Jerusalem were tampered with. A Meretz voter discovered the name of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) Chairman Avigdor Lieberman written on the back of a Meretz ballot, which would have invalidated it.

Meretz told its voters nationwide to inspect the ballots to make sure the phenomenon was a local one.

The Jewish Home party lodged a formal complaint with the Central Elections Committee Tuesday afternoon, claiming that Shas supporters forced an elderly woman to vote for Shas in Givat Shmuel. The complaint demands that the woman be allowed to vote again.

According to the woman, Shas supporters offered the woman a ride to the voting station. Once there, they accompanied her to the voting booth and persuaded her to choose Shas.

A Jerusalem polling observer is suspected of voting twice, Army Radio reports. The observer allegedly attempted to cast a second ballot when one of the chief polling observers stepped out.

Nor did Jewish election inspectors seem to weather the storm in Arab towns. In response to threats to Baruch Marzel’s life from Umm El-Fahm’s Arab populace, police prevented Marzel from serving as chairman of a polling station in the Arab town.

The Shomron Settlers Council reports that at a polling station in Kfar Kassam, an Arab voter attacked a Jewish election observer. The Arab cursed him and subsequently broke out in a frenzy, attacking him with a chair. The Arab election observers calmed him down while police officers who were outside the room entered and arrested the Arab.

In an incident that occurred a few minutes later, another Arab spat at the Jewish election observer and fled.

Elections Committee chairman Judge Eliezer Rivlin is nevertheless happy with the overall orderly conduct of Israel’s citizens at the polling booths. “The elections are conducted properly, and this is a celebration for democracy,” Rivlin stated, adding that his main wish is that there would have been a bigger voter turnout.