Gad Durlecher was the NU/NRP representative of the Elections Committee in the Jezreel Valley district. A retired IDF Colonel and a member of Kibbutz Sdei Eliyahu, he told Arutz-7 today of the election irregularities that regularly take place in the Arab sector:
"From my experience in elections here, I can tell you that vote-stealing and ballot stuffing is quite a routine phenomenon in the Arab sector...
"For instance, a man comes in holding four ID cards - his own and that of his family members - and the polling board people explain patiently to him why he can't vote in their name and must instead wait for the observers to leave...
"I saw a woman come in with three ID cards, including one for her grandfather; when I looked at the card, I saw that he was well over 100 years old; he probably died a long time ago, and they probably buried him in their yard without reporting his death and continue to receive pension payments for him as if he was alive...
"In another case, two observers whose papers I personally signed were told that their papers were forged and that they had to leave. In another case, some inspector came and took their papers for inspection - and then didn't return them; shortly afterwards, the polling station chairman asked for their papers, and when they couldn't produce them, he said they had to leave..."
Durlecher said that in some of these cases, he was able to intervene and salvage the situation.
"The main problem, of course, is that in many of the polling stations, the custom is that after the voting ends, they see who didn't vote, and then they start the trading - crossing out the names of those who didn't show up and adding votes as if they really did vote. Some of them can't control their appetite and even register votes for up to 99% up the voters - and that's why those polling stations were checked and disqualified by the Elections Committee.
"Unfortunately, in many cases, the Elections Committee people don't take our complaints seriously, and merely want to get through the day peacefully. Instead of the police and Interior Ministry people helping us to make sure the elections are clean, they make it harder for us - such as when they stopped our bus of volunteer observers on their way to polling stations in [the Israeli-Arab city of] Nazareth... In short, I would estimate that 1-2 mandates in the Knesset could be saved if we could stop these and other deceptive practices in the Arab sector."
One paid polling station board member, N.G. of Eli, told his story to Arutz-7's Baruch Gordon. (Click here to hear the Hebrew-language interview.) He related a number of irregular incidents that occurred during the day, saving the most serious for last:
"I was an official member of the Polling Station Board at Polling Station #1 in the village of Mash'had, north of Nazareth... At one point, a man came in with an ID of a woman who, he said, was outside in the car and couldn't come in. I said that the law is straightforward and that he couldn't vote in her name - but the chairman overruled me, and just asked the policeman to identify her, which he did, and that was that.
"Another man came with three ID cards, another one came with a woman's ID, and a young woman came with an old woman's card. At first I checked all the ID cards, as I was legally supposed to do, but after a while they realized that it wasn't good for them to have me stop these people from voting - and so, using threats and force, they stopped me from checking.
"Towards the end of the evening, they decided that they wanted me to leave. I told them that I had full rights to be there. [I called my superior, Gad Durlecher, who threatened them that he would have their entire polling station disqualified], and finally they had no choice but to allow me to stay. When the counting was completed, they saw that 300 people in their precinct had not voted. They told me straight out that their practice is to take the leftover votes and split them up amongst themselves [the Arab parties]. I said that this is against all ethics and integrity and the entire purpose of democratic elections - so then they offered me to take part in sharing the booty as well. But of course I refused... Finally the policeman saw what was going on and told them they couldn't do that. They didn't really listen to him, and continued to try to convince me, but it didn't work."
"From my experience in elections here, I can tell you that vote-stealing and ballot stuffing is quite a routine phenomenon in the Arab sector...
"For instance, a man comes in holding four ID cards - his own and that of his family members - and the polling board people explain patiently to him why he can't vote in their name and must instead wait for the observers to leave...
"I saw a woman come in with three ID cards, including one for her grandfather; when I looked at the card, I saw that he was well over 100 years old; he probably died a long time ago, and they probably buried him in their yard without reporting his death and continue to receive pension payments for him as if he was alive...
"In another case, two observers whose papers I personally signed were told that their papers were forged and that they had to leave. In another case, some inspector came and took their papers for inspection - and then didn't return them; shortly afterwards, the polling station chairman asked for their papers, and when they couldn't produce them, he said they had to leave..."
Durlecher said that in some of these cases, he was able to intervene and salvage the situation.
"The main problem, of course, is that in many of the polling stations, the custom is that after the voting ends, they see who didn't vote, and then they start the trading - crossing out the names of those who didn't show up and adding votes as if they really did vote. Some of them can't control their appetite and even register votes for up to 99% up the voters - and that's why those polling stations were checked and disqualified by the Elections Committee.
"Unfortunately, in many cases, the Elections Committee people don't take our complaints seriously, and merely want to get through the day peacefully. Instead of the police and Interior Ministry people helping us to make sure the elections are clean, they make it harder for us - such as when they stopped our bus of volunteer observers on their way to polling stations in [the Israeli-Arab city of] Nazareth... In short, I would estimate that 1-2 mandates in the Knesset could be saved if we could stop these and other deceptive practices in the Arab sector."
One paid polling station board member, N.G. of Eli, told his story to Arutz-7's Baruch Gordon. (Click here to hear the Hebrew-language interview.) He related a number of irregular incidents that occurred during the day, saving the most serious for last:
"I was an official member of the Polling Station Board at Polling Station #1 in the village of Mash'had, north of Nazareth... At one point, a man came in with an ID of a woman who, he said, was outside in the car and couldn't come in. I said that the law is straightforward and that he couldn't vote in her name - but the chairman overruled me, and just asked the policeman to identify her, which he did, and that was that.
"Another man came with three ID cards, another one came with a woman's ID, and a young woman came with an old woman's card. At first I checked all the ID cards, as I was legally supposed to do, but after a while they realized that it wasn't good for them to have me stop these people from voting - and so, using threats and force, they stopped me from checking.
"Towards the end of the evening, they decided that they wanted me to leave. I told them that I had full rights to be there. [I called my superior, Gad Durlecher, who threatened them that he would have their entire polling station disqualified], and finally they had no choice but to allow me to stay. When the counting was completed, they saw that 300 people in their precinct had not voted. They told me straight out that their practice is to take the leftover votes and split them up amongst themselves [the Arab parties]. I said that this is against all ethics and integrity and the entire purpose of democratic elections - so then they offered me to take part in sharing the booty as well. But of course I refused... Finally the policeman saw what was going on and told them they couldn't do that. They didn't really listen to him, and continued to try to convince me, but it didn't work."