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Jan 22, 2014

Attorney General call for new elections

The Attorney General, Yehuda Weinstein has called for new elections.

Wait. that is old news, isn't it?

In Bet Shemesh it is old news, but now Weinstein has called for new elections in Nazereth.

In Nazareth they have been fighting over the election results as well, similarly to Bet Shemesh. The incumbent mayor, Ramiz Jaraisi, was voted out in favor of challenger Ali Salam, according to initial election results. The vote deferential was 22 votes. Pretty tight race.

Then Jaraisi appealed to the election board claiming fraud. Jarasai requested that 47 envelopes be opened. After that happened, Jaraisi was declared the winner, by 9 votes (or 7 according to the Misrad Hapnim). Even tighter race. Then Salam appealed, claiming fraud.

Whatever the exact details were, stuff happened, and the Attorney General has now appealed to the court for new elections in Nazareth.
source: NRG

There goes the claim that this only happened in Bet Shemesh because it was haredim involved... Weinstein is against electoral fraud, and nothing more than that.

And in other reelection news, MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) has proposed a law by which funding would be given to relevant political parties in the case of new elections being ordered by the court.

The way it works now, if I understand it correctly, is the parties spend money on their campaigns, and then the State reimburses the parties based on the results. Parties that get in, get money based on how many seats they won.

With new elections on the horizon, it turns out that the law only allows for this once. In the case of reelections, the parties spend money on their campaigns the second time around, but will not get reimbursed for the second campaign expenses. This has the parties in Bet Shemesh worried, as they might not be able to afford the costs of what they consider the necessary campaign to be successful. Mk Aryeh Deri even told party activists in Bet Shemesh a couple of weeks ago that they have no money to fund an expensive campaign again, and activists would have to bring their own sandwiches to campaign headquarters this time around.

 Gafni's proposal would give parties the funding the second time around as well.

Gafni explains in his proposal that this situation of  the court calling for new elections for both city council and mayor is entirely new, and the lack of government funding would create a situation in which political parties campaigning would either have to steal the money for the campaign or accept illegal donations. It is not possible that there should be general elections but no funding.

The proposal comes to the Knesset later today for its initial voting, and is expected to pass, considering MKs from all the parties are supporting it.
source: Kikar

Technically, this is changing the law in the middle of the "game". This should really only apply to the next time it happens (assuming it passes) and not to this elections. However, I assume that since it is being proposed specifically because of the current election situation in Bet Shemesh that it will be implemented immediately (assuming it passes).




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5 comments:

  1. Why does there have to be a repeat campaign? Just hold a fair new election. Also consider barring the previous guilty candidates from the new ballot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. On the campaign funding:

    NO! The campaigns are done! The new election should simply be to have fair voting and nothing more. We already know the candidates. We know their platform. There is nothing more that needs be said. If the Charedim want to spin up new lies to sway voters a second time, let them go to America and collect!

    ReplyDelete
  3. that all may be true, but the law says from the time the court makes its final decision, there are 30 days to elections. Naturally the parties will go back into campaign mode for those 30 days.
    Maybe we need to change that law to say however much time is enough to organize what needs to be organized - maybe 5 days or a week.. or immediately.

    ReplyDelete
  4. NO! No more money. As it is, seems absurd that there is election funding for incumbents and for winners. Less money for the campaign? Then run a tighter campaign!

    ReplyDelete
  5. He is both against chareidim and voter fraud.
    When the margain of victory is in question, and he calls for reelctions, that is because he is against voter fraud.
    When the margain of victory is over 20 times the amount of ballots in question, and he calls for reelections, it is not because of voter fraud

    ReplyDelete

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