Voting slips
Voting slipsIsaac Harari/Flash 90

In confirmation of the Yachad - Ha'am Itanu and Otzma Yehudit accusations that Shas activists committed mass voter fraud in invalidating the two parties' joint list ballot slips, recordings reveal Shas activists instructing how to invalidate the slips.

IDF Radio on Monday morning published recordings of a Shas activist from Jerusalem guiding his friends on how to harm Yachad on elections day - Yachad wound up less than 11,000 votes short of getting past the recently raised threshold percentage.

"Everyone who goes to vote - let them remove the slips of 'ketz,' let them put them in their pocket and put in its place Shas," the supporter can be heard saying in the recording, referring to the letters on the slip representing Yachad.

He continued, "in this way at all the ballot boxes there will be two Shas (piles of slips). If they search for 'ketz' - they won't find (them), and they can go to hell."

At least two Shas activists were in fact arrested on elections day for doing exactly as the supporter described, stealing Yachad voting slips to interfere in the democratic process.

The same supporter is also heard saying "even if you leave the (Yachad) slips there, you can color them, make a small scribble so that they'll be invalidated...we'll make a ketz (lit. end) for them in the ballots."

Pictures have circulated the internet showing how Yachad slips had tiny holes poked in them, or else had small scribbles on them which the unsuspecting voters did not notice, consequently robbing them of their right to vote.

The Shas supporter confirmed in a discussion with the station that he did indeed say the statements as recorded in the tapes, and that he is a Shas activist. Shas has claimed he is lying.

"The smallest pen scribble you can make"

In another recording, Shas activists including several who held roles in managing the voting on elections day, were heard discussing how to block Yachad votes.

"I think that the best is to fold them a bit on the side - that's the most effective and best," an activist can be heard saying. "Because there were several who scribbled on the slips and those who counted the votes didn't invalidate them because they saw it was against one specific party."

"You need to fold them a bit on the side. Don't forget - whoever goes to vote - you can put the ketz votes in your pocket...or let them draw the smallest scribble possible on them in pen, scribble on it with a pen and all their work will be destroyed."

In response to the recordings, Yachad said in a statement that "as we claimed, an organized headquarters acted with malice to destroy the chances of Yachad to enter the Knesset."

"The fact that in the year 2015 the possibility to steal elections by using criminal tools and in this way harm clean elections still exists needs to trouble the legal system and all the citizens of the state," added Yachad.

Aside from stealing or defacing voting slips, it was charged that Shas activists established a fictitious party to mislead Yachad voters.