Israel's Elections Committee to Certify Results Despite Likud Delay Bid

Israel’s Central Elections Committee will finalize and publish official results on Wednesday morning.

Chairman Noam Sohlberg, the deputy president of the Supreme Court, is scheduled to deliver the certified figures to President Isaac Herzog at the President’s Residence at noon.

This handover marks the formal completion of the certification process and triggers the start of presidential consultations with elected party leaders.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and its coalition partners attempted to postpone the certification to allow for the completion of two ongoing investigations into alleged irregularities.

The first probe involves the Shin Bet and Mossad examining intelligence that money from Qatar and other countries reached the Joint List through disguised donations.

A separate police investigation is looking into alleged vote-buying in the Negev region.

Likud argued that a lack of clarity regarding the scope of these probes warranted a delay.

Sohlberg rejected the request in a letter to a Likud lawyer, stating the committee lacks the authority to postpone certification based on law enforcement concerns.

He noted that the Basic Law requires results to be published within eight days of the vote, and any extension would require a special majority of 80 members of the Knesset.

Sohlberg added that the outcome of the investigations is unlikely to materially impact the final seat allocation.

Netanyahu’s bloc holds a majority on the committee, which is drawn proportionally from the outgoing Knesset rather than the newly elected one.

While this majority could physically vote against certification, legal experts say such a move would lack a legal basis and would likely be overturned by the High Court of Justice if petitioned against. The committee can only vote against certification if it finds errors in the calculation of valid votes and seat translation, not to examine claims of irregularity, according to Nisreen Abo Asalh of the Israel Democracy Institute. Such challenges belong in the Jerusalem District Court sitting as an administrative court. A similar, though less formal, situation occurred in 2020 when Likud representatives abstained and Shas representatives left the room during the certification vote, citing unsubstantiated irregularity claims. The committee’s mandate is strictly limited to confirming vote counts and their conversion into seats, figures already determined by Sohlberg and his deputies using data from polling stations and regional committees. If the committee votes against certification on extraneous grounds, it would constitute an administrative failure likely to be challenged in the High Court. Herzog will begin consulting with factions on the same day, starting with smaller parties in a departure from previous custom. The schedule begins at 5 p.m. with Religious Zionism, followed by Shas and Yisrael Beytenu. The remaining factions are expected to meet on Thursday, concluding with Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party and Likud in the evening. President Herzog has until November 11 to assign the mandate to build a coalition to one of the party leaders. Likud remained the largest party in the October 27 vote with 27 seats, but Netanyahu’s coalition of ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties lost its majority, holding 53 seats in total. The remaining 67 seats are split between Jewish-led parties opposed to Netanyahu, which hold 48 seats, and Arab-led parties, which hold 19 seats. Neither bloc of Jewish-led parties has a clear path to a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.