Parties furious over reported election misdemeanors

Reported election misdemeanors have dampened the spirit forTuesday's election, with Likud and Yisrael Beytenu petitioning to the Central Elections Committee that numerous polling booths were missing voting slips.Likud headquarters received complaints that at 26 polling stations throughout Petah Tikva, all of the Likud's ballots had disappeared. "I hope that the other political parties will uphold proper democratic standards," said MK Yoav Galant, chairman of the Likud's field headquarters. "We will submit a formal complaint to the Central Elections Committee. "Meanwhile, the spokesman for Yisrael Beytenu reported a similar problem."Yisrael Beytenu activists discovered this morning that a number of their ballot papers with the letter 'lamed' had disappeared from polling stations in Ashdod, Safed, Netanya, Bat Yam, Lod, Netivot, Hadera and Or Akiva," the party said, referring to the Hebrew letter that appears on its ballot. "Only after requests were made were ballot papers brought to the polling stations. Again, a formal complaint was filed with the Elections Committee."Furthermore, people complained that right-wing activists had been disrupting the voting in Arab communities by wiretapping and using hidden cameras, which were intended to dissuade the Arab public from voting.The Hadash-Ta'al Party is reported to have submitted an urgent complaint to the committee requesting the immediate removal of the cameras that had been illegally installed by right-wing activists in polling stations in the Arab communities. Police have been stationed in the polling booths."The extreme Right understands very well our power to topple the government, and crosses every border by illegal means in an attempt to intervene and prevent Arab citizens from voting," Hadash said. "But we also understand our power. We are going to vote today, against their noses and anger."Balad chairman MK Jamal Zahalka appealed to the committee, on behalf of the Ra'am-Balad Party, to request an order against the Likud and other right-wing parties for disrupting the election process in the Arab communities.Zahalka referred to the cameras as an "illegal move intended to frighten the electorate and deter them from voting and realizing their basic right.""We will sit in the next Knesset and represent our public, even if Likud and the Right do not want us there. We are drawing our legitimacy from our constituency rather than from Netanyahu," Balad said.