23 Aug 2019; MEMO: A member of Israel’s parliament has claimed that dead people “participate” in the country’s elections in what amounts to ballot box fraud.
Oded Forer MK, of the Yisrael Beiteinu bloc in the Knesset, said on Wednesday that he is going to ask the election committee to place cameras in the polling stations in Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) neighbourhoods. Ballot box fraud among Haredi Jews is a “fact,” he claimed.
“The unusual rates of voting [in Haredi areas],” added Forer, “and the talks about the dead people’s participation in the vote requires strict surveillance.” He insisted that he will also call for the mobilisation of volunteers to work as observers in the polling stations in Haredi areas across Israel.
The move follows the controversial demand by the Likud party to deploy cameras at polling stations in Arab towns. The Central Election Committee has yet to decide on this matter.
Despite this, during Israel’s General Election in April, Likud deployed about 1,300 cameras in Arab towns. Ostensibly to detect fraud, the reality was that it discouraged Arab voters from taking part in the election.
