Election Commission Says No Voter Arrests on Election Day

The Central Election Committee has decided to prevent arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft evaders on the coming election day, in an effort to ensure that voters are not scared away from polling stations. The move was disclosed Monday evening by Ynet reporter Amir Ettinger.

According to the report, the committee’s director general told representatives of the various parties in a formal meeting that no voter arrests will be carried out on election day itself. He made the clarification alongside Central Election Committee chairman Justice Naor Sohlberg of the Supreme Court, and the assumption is that Sohlberg approved the instruction fully.

The decision is meant to avoid a situation in which religiously observant voters, fearing arrest over their military status, stay home instead of exercising their democratic right to vote at polling stations across the country. The committee wants to remove that fear and keep election day orderly and equal for all sectors.

The background is the tense debate over the draft law and the status of thousands of yeshiva students and married scholars classified as draft evaders. In the ultra-Orthodox community, there has been concern that election day, with large crowds and heavier police presence around Haredi areas and polling sites, could become an opportunity for random arrests. Recent weeks have also seen rising protests and frustration after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not advance the Haredi-backed draft of the housing benefits law and other related legislation.