Last month, the Central Elections Committee tapped its recently retired legal adviser, Dean Livne, as acting director general, replacing outgoing chief Orly Adas, who resigned on April 30 after 15 years on the job amid a political pressure campaign.

Livne’s appointment was immediately condemned by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, with MK Avichay Buaron calling the acting chief “clearly politically biased” and the choice “worrying and invalid.”

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli issued a similar critique, saying it was a “scandalous political appointment that casts a heavy shadow over the integrity of Israel’s upcoming election.”

What may have gotten them and others in a huff were comments Livne made to the Kan public broadcaster in April regarding his concerns that plans were being made to contest the results of the October 27 general election.

“We’ve seen that one of the players, one or more, are trying to cast doubt on the results even before there are results,” he said.

Livne did not name the object of his concern, but there seemed little doubt who he was referring to. Only one major party had challenged the appointment of a new Central Elections Committee legal adviser, Yifat Siminovski, who replaced Livne — the same party whose members were now casting doubt on Livne’s role in the body himself.

As Israel heads into its first election season in four years, Likud politicians’ long history of questioning the integrity of top Central Elections Committee officials and, by extension, the body itself has led some legal experts to express concern that the party and its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, could be laying the groundwork to either dispute the results, or to pressure the body into more favorable rulings.

Likud is placing “a sword of Damocles above the head of the committee” so that its members will “think twice” about whether any decision can be construed as biased against the party, said Yaniv Roznai, vice dean of Reichman University’s Harry Radzyner Law School.

“But the bigger project, of course, is delegitimation of the committee to prepare for [election day] in case they lose,” added Roznai, who recently participated in several Zoom meetings on election integrity, including an event hosted by Yair Lapid in which the opposition leader accused Likud of planning to lie and cheat to steal the election.

Lapid insisted that his Yesh Atid party had “identified patterns of interference,” adding: “I don’t think the Netanyahu government will try to interfere in the elections. I know it.”

A Likud source denied any such plot, insisting that the party was poised for a win that would obviate the need for ploys.

The committee’s role, and its battles

The Central Elections Committee acts as the state’s main arbiter for setting the ground rules for elections, playing referee to ensure a fair and honest vote and tallying votes once the public has had its say.

The body is chaired by a Supreme Court justice, currently the conservative Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg, and comprises representatives of the various factions in the Knesset.

Ahead of elections, it has the power to disqualify parties or candidates deemed outside the bounds of legitimate political discourse, such as those espousing racist or terror-supporting views, though those decisions are often overturned by the Supreme Court.

It also enforces campaign rules, fining parties for election advertisements and rhetoric that violate the law, such as in 2020 when it penalized the ultra-Orthodox Shas party for handing out charms and candles promising protection against coronavirus at polling stations — or, more recently, when it ordered Likud to take down a manipulated image that appeared to show Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid joining hands with Arab party leaders.

Likud members have long accused the committee of unfairness, including in 2021, when then-Knesset speaker Yariv Levin attacked it as “biased” and its decisions as “illogical.”

He denied at the time that the remarks were part of a plan to dispute the results should Netanyahu lose.

“There were unacceptable events in the previous elections,” Levin told the Kan public broadcaster.

Two years earlier, Netanyahu had claimed that the committee’s disqualification of cameras in polling stations had led to fraudulent votes being cast for Arab party Balad, preventing his bloc from winning a Knesset majority.

In March........

© The Times of Israel