Likud Calls Election Reporting Ban a 'Terror Attack' at High Court

The Israeli Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, heard a petition from the Likud party challenging a directive by the head of the Central Elections Committee, Justice Noam Sohlberg. Sohlberg had prohibited the real-time transfer of information from polling stations regarding voters who had cast ballots and those who had not yet voted.

Representing Likud, attorney Ilan Bombach argued that the ban constituted a "terror attack" from the party's perspective, stating it would "destroy the elections" and cause "enormous and colossal damage" to Likud so close to the vote. Justice Khaled Kabub questioned why the ban specifically concerned Likud, to which Bombach responded that Likud, as a long-standing party with a large voter base, relies on such data to engage its supporters, and that changing this practice just weeks before an election was unacceptable. Kabub countered by asking if the test was simply which party possessed the oldest voter registry.

Sohlberg's earlier ruling, issued about a month prior, forbade party representatives at polling stations from reporting voter turnout via apps designed to encourage voting, such as "Elector." He stated that existing law prohibits the real-time transfer of such information and that he, in his capacity as head of the Elections Committee, would not grant permission for it. Sohlberg cited privacy laws and the absence of specific authorization for poll workers and observers, while acknowledging that the legal situation might warrant revision, but that it was not his place to amend it.

Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, and the Religious Zionist Party opposed the decision, asserting it did not infringe on privacy. A senior Likud official described the move as a "targeted assassination of the right."