Innovation, Science, and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel filed a police complaint on Wednesday over the decision to conduct a recount of Likud primary ballots from Be’er Ya’akov. The complaint was filed against Likud Director General David Sharan, MK Haim Katz, and a security guard.
Katz responded in a post on his X account: “If anyone has complaints, here is the address: Ofek Park, Northern Industrial Zone, 1 Pesach Lev Street, Lod,” referring to the address of the Lahav 433 police unit headquarters.
The Likud announced on Tuesday that it would conduct a recount of the ballot boxes from Be’er Ya’akov after Gamliel appealed to the party’s Supreme Court. In her appeal, she requested an injunction preventing the opening of a ballot box in Be’er Ya’akov for a recount.
Gamliel argued that the recount could push her into the fourth tier of the Likud’s Knesset list, allowing Eti Atiya to replace her in the 25th position.
In her petition, Gamliel argued that the Likud Central Elections Committee’s decision to reopen ballot box No. 101101 in Be’er Ya’akov for a recount could directly and immediately harm her candidacy in the primaries. She asked the court to prevent the recount until it ruled on the petition itself.
Gamilel demands that if a recount is conducted, it must be carried out differently
Alternatively, she requested that if a recount is conducted, it be carried out in an equal and comprehensive manner across all ballot boxes nationwide where concerns over irregularities have been raised, rather than only in Be’er Ya’akov.
Gamliel claimed that “the count was contaminated.” The petition stated that the ballot boxes from Be’er Ya’akov remained in the possession of Likud management for eight days after they had already been counted and their results uploaded to the database, while the election results were already known and publicly available.
According to the petition, this period of custody “creates a real and serious concern regarding the integrity of the ballot boxes."