'Problems in 80 Kadima polling stations'

MKs, activists file petitions alleging illegalities, vow to go to Supreme Court if results not overturned.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
livni votes 224 88 (photo credit: AP [file])
livni votes 224 88
(photo credit: AP [file])
President Moshe Katsav's lawyer, Tzion Amir, petitioned an internal Kadima court on Sunday alleging illegalities in the voting in 80 out of the 114 polling stations in last Wednesday's party leadership race. Amir issued the petition on behalf of Kadima MK Ze'ev Elkin, a loyalist of Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, while other Kadima activists filed a separate petition. Both appellants vowed to go to the Supreme Court if the results of the race were not overturned. "With all the problems there were with the voting, the results must be properly checked for there to be justice," Elkin said. "I expected Tzipi Livni to check it because she claims to be so clean, but she didn't, so I had no choice but to appeal." The Ometz organization asked Attorney-general Menahem Mazuz to investigate the primary, citing the extension of the voting by half an hour, the early broadcast of exit polls while people were still voting and problems at polling stations in Beit Jann, Baka-Jatt and Rahat. Activists loyal to Mofaz found many examples of polling stations where more people voted than were permitted. They found at least 257 examples of votes that were cast but not counted. The lost votes are significant because Kadima election committee chairman Dan Arbel said last week that he would have held a recount if the margin of victory had been one vote less. Arbel made the statement because there were 430 votes that were disqualified in Rahat, the only polling station that was not counted, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won the race by 431 votes. Kadima officials responded that the campaigns of both Livni and Mofaz had approved the results of the race. They explained the confusion by saying that many people, such as soldiers and the hospitalized, had been allowed to vote somewhere other than their local polling station for technical reasons, and that this was why it seemed their votes had not been counted.