Yachad Ha’am-Itanu chairman MK Eli Yishai is personally disappointed at the fact that several polling stations hid his party’s ballots – against Central Elections Commission (CEC) laws, he revealed in an elections day interview with Arutz Sheva on Tuesday.
He noted that his day began with many complaints about their ballot slips disappearing at polling stations, “by people who apparently received orders to do some from Shas, unfortunately,” he said. One community member was arrested in Kohav Yaakov for hiding the ballots.
Yishai reminded the public that, in the event their polling station had hidden the party’s ballots, it is possible to take a blank slip and write the Yachad letters – קץ – on the slip and submit it.
“I’m sorry for this behavior, that now the Arabs and Left have come together and, God forbid, we will lose votes of the Right as a result,” Yishai stated. “This is terrible.”
Yishai reminded readers that he personally turned to the chairmen of various haredi and religious parties – Shas included – to request that elections be ensured clean and fair.
“After all, we want a national government, to preserve Torah and the Land of Israel,” he said. “Unfortunately, I see that the reality is different. If we lose votes, it endangers the national camp. We want the Right in power and not the Left.”
Yishai is convinced, as well, that negotiations over the division of Jerusalem will begin as well if Labor-Hatnua leaders Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni are elected to the government.
“It will be due to our merit that we have a nationalist government,” Yishai urged, and called on citizens who see problems at the ballot box to contact law enforcement over the issue to prevent intentional disruptions.
Yishai also referred to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s call not only to vote for his party, but for other right-wing parties to join forces.
“It is clear that he will form the next government, with God’s help,” Yishai said. “There is no other option. And it is our seats which ultimately determine this. If we pass the threshold, then we could have 5-6 seats that don’t go to the Zionist Union [Labor-Hatnua – ed.].”
“This is exactly what he [Netanyahu] needs,” he continued. “So in this case, his half or quarter mandate mandate is irrelevant compared to our seats that will bring him to power in the end.”
“Tonight we’ll call him to congratulate him and join a right-wing government,” he continued. “We won’t sit in a government with Yitzhak and Livni. Therefore, these mandates are saving the nationalist parties and Likud.”