The significant increase in the number of Bnei Brak voters
for chareidi parties in the recent elections, as compared
with the previous election, unequivocally indicates that all
claims of fictitious voting which supposedly occurred in past
elections were groundless, according to Rabbi Avrohom
Tannebaum. Rabbi Tannebaum is secretary and spokesman of Bnei
Brak's Municipality as well as director of the Bnei Brak bloc
in the Dan-North regional elections committee.
Prior to the elections, the Leftist parties announced that
they would send many officials and observers to chareidi
neighborhoods such as Bnei Brak to guarantee that the
elections are run honestly. There are always widespread
reports of dishonest voting in chareidi neighborhoods, and
many believe that the high turnout in these places results
from illegal activities rather than real voting.
Rabbi Tannebaum stressed that the dispatching of thousands of
observers from other cities to Bnei Brak on election day to
oversee the "integrity" of the elections and to prevent
illegal voting caused needless agitation in the city. At the
end of election day, the results of the voting proved beyond
a doubt that this measure was unjustified.
The number of votes UTJ received in these elections rose from
26,025 to 29,062. The number of votes Shas received also rose
sharply. During the previous elections Shas received 9,227
votes; this time 13,655. "If there were falsifications in the
former elections, when thousands of outside observers didn't
come to Bnei Brak, how did the rate of voting for the
chareidi parties rise so sharply precisely in these
elections, when there was such tight supervision by outside
observers?" the spokesman wondered.
The spokesman also noted that due to the hostile attitude of
a large number of observers and members of the polls
committees, some of whom caused lengthy delays in many polls
and purposely held identity cards for long times, elderly
people and women with infants in their hands were forced to
wait at the polls for hours. The crowding of the activists
from other cities around the polls also caused superfluous
tension.
Despite all this, Tannebaum stated, in a small number of the
polls working relations were amicable and friendly
discussions developed between the city's representatives and
those from the kibbutzim and other cities. "It's time that
all those who created panic over massive forgeries, the
distrust and the terrorizing, understand that they either
erred or caused others to err. They must call a halt to this
unacceptable approach."
