Israeli Election Authority Reviews Challenges to Party Candidacies

With 41 days remaining until the upcoming elections, the deadline for submitting requests to disqualify Knesset candidates and lists has passed. A total of six parties from both the coalition and opposition have had their candidacies challenged. Additionally, requests were filed to disqualify individual candidates from the Otzma Yehudit and HaDemocratim parties, though these were dismissed outright.

The Central Elections Committee is scheduled to review the remaining requests next week. Three separate petitions seek to disqualify the Ra'am party: one from Otzma Yehudit, another from the Likud party, and a third from the "Boherim BeChaim" forum.

Further challenges include a request to disqualify the Joint List and its Member of Knesset Ofer Cassif, and a separate petition to disqualify the Balad party, submitted by the "Orot HaShachar" party.

The Otzma Yehudit party itself faces two disqualification requests, one from "Zehut - for Equality and Human Rights" and another from HaDemocratim. The "Zehut - for Equality and Human Rights" organization also filed a request to disqualify the Religious Zionism list, led by Bezalel Smotrich, and the Zehut party, led by Moshe Feiglin.