The Likud party on Tuesday rejected the legal opinion of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit stating that the party’s camera surveillance operation targeting polling centers in Arab towns could constitute a criminal offense.
Last week, Mandelblit submitted ahead of a Central Elections Committee his legal opinion on whether to allow Likud party to resume its operation, begun in April, in the upcoming September 17 election.
The Attorney General announced he was against camera surveillance, saying this could constitute as a criminal offense if it disrupted the elections. He explained that the Elections Committee can’t authorize setting the cameras in polls, unless stated by the law or elections regulations.
During the April 9 elections, Likud equipped some 1,200 of its polling officials working at ballot stations in Arab population centers with hidden body cameras to prevent alleged fraud that occurred in the community.
In April, Head of the Central Elections Committee Hanan Melcer use of such devices in cases where there was “considerable fear” of voter fraud. His decision caused a series of issues in a number of polls which required police intervention.
However, Likud challenged its opponents and doubled its budget for the surveillance operation ahead of next month’s election, with its intention to allocate roughly $570,000 to the program.
“Though it’s not possible to say definitively that placing cameras at polling stations constitutes a criminal offense, in certain circumstances they would be considered a crime as they interfere with the voting process,” Mandelblit wrote last week to the Central Election Committee.
In its response to the Attorney General’s opinion, Likud claimed any guidance that does not allow voting supervision at the polling stations is unacceptable.
“Likud has sought to check hundreds of polling stations in which suspicions of fraud in the Arab sector emerged in the last elections – and they have not been examined until now,” Likud said in a statement.
Referring to officials at the Attorney General’s office, the party claimed that they are trying to prevent basic polling supervision in a way that could hurt democracy and the purity of elections.
During last week’s hearing, Melcer referenced the evidence handed over by Likud after the April vote and said that police were still looking into the matter.
A spokesman for the Central Elections Committee said that Melcer would reach a decision on the matter next week.
