The Central Elections Committee was deadlocked on the petition to disqualify the Otzma Yehudit party from competing in the Knesset elections in September, with 15 committee members voting to accept the petition, while 15 voted to reject it.
The petition was ultimately rejected, as it required a clear majority to be accepted. As a result the Otzma Yehudit party will be allowed to run, the committee decided.
Votes on the demand to disqualify Baruch Marzel and Benzi Gopstein from running for Knesset were delayed.
This decision was made after a Labor Party representative claimed that another problem prevented another representative from coming to the committee.
Election committee chairman Justice Hanan Meltzer accepted the request not to vote on the candidacies.
Otzma Yedhudit chairman Dr. Michael Ben Ari was furious at the decision. "Judge Meltzer changes the rules in the middle of voting in order to disqualify Benzi and Marzel. That's the whole story," he wrote on his Twitter account.