Rivlin to receive final election results on Tuesday
President Reuven Rivlin will formally receive the results of the March 2 election on Tuesday, when he hosts the head of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Judge Neal Hendel, at the President’s Residence.
Hendel rejected a series of appeals from Likud asking him to postpone announcing the final results. The Likud wanted to question the results in many polling stations in an effort to change the final outcome, but Hendel decided that only three polling stations had serious enough problems.
The results in Lod, Rahat and Iksal were presented to police, due to alleged forgeries and vote tampering. The votes in the three polling stations are not enough to change the mandate count for any party.
Rivlin will hold his consultations with representatives of the eight Knesset factions on Sunday. The deadline for him to appoint a Knesset member to form a government is next Tuesday, March 17.
Unlike after the April and September elections, when Rivlin began consultations before the results were even official in order to expedite the process, this time Rivlin will be taking all the time available to him in order to give parties the chance to figure out their next steps in advance.
The consultations will be handled without the participation of the media and without advisers and aides, in an effort to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus. The meetings will be broadcast live on Rivlin’s Facebook page.