Central Elections Committee
Central Elections CommitteePhoto by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Israel’s Central Elections Committee certified the results of last week’s Knesset election Wednesday, finalizing the allocation of seats in the 22nd Knesset.

Following a last-minute change in the final vote tally after voter fraud claims were investigated in a number of ballot boxes, the Likud was awarded an extra seat at United Torah Judaism’s expense. The distribution of seats in the 22nd Knesset will be as follows:

Blue and White: 33
Likud: 32
Joint List: 13
Shas: 9
Yisrael Beytenu: 8
UTJ: 7
Yamina: 7
Labor-Gesher: 6
Democratic Union: 5

Two members of the Central Elections Committee, both representatives of the United Torah Judaism party, voted against certification of the results in protest of the fact that they were not provided with details on the last-minute changes in the vote count which resulted in UTJ losing a seat to the Likud.

MK David Bitan (Likud), the deputy chairman of the Central Elections Committee, said during the committee discussion ahead of the vote that there would not be an additional snap election.

“There won’t be a third election. And if there will be, I won’t be here.”

The Central Elections Committee chairman, Hanan Melcer said that there had been a “campaign to delegitimize the CEC,” but added that the committee had “succeeded in foiling” the attempt.

ביטן: לא תיהיה מערכת בחירות שלישית