Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed in a bid to allow cameras at polling stations during national elections, a move critics suggested was aimed at lowering Arab turnout.
The legislation, put forward by Netanyahu’s Likud party just over a week before election day, would have allowed representatives of political parties to film voters at polling stations.
The plan was foiled when a parliamentary committee voted down the bill on Monday.Mr Netanyahu has frequently raised the threat of voter fraud on the part of Israeli Arabs as a campaign tactic to mobilise his right-wing base, despite there being little evidence to support his claims. The strategy has drawn comparisons to president Donald Trump, who has made similar unsubstantiated claims about minority communities in the US.
“We know that large-scale fraud exists, and it must be prevented. Allowing party-affiliated observers to film the voting process is the only way to prevent election theft,” the prime minister said on Sunday.