Nissenkorn Wins Histadrut Election Amid Accusations of Vote Tampering

Avi Nissenkorn has staved off a challenge to his leadership of the Histadrut, Israel’s national labor union, despite claims of vote tampering.

Nissenkorn received 62.42 percent of the votes to defeat Shelley Yachimovich’s 37.58 percent, a margin of over 55,000 votes. Over 244,000 members voted in the election.

Central Election Committee Chairman Tal Keret submitted to the committee’s members the final vote count on Friday and announcing that Nissenkorn will continue serving as the labor union’s head.

Yachimovich, a senior Zionist Camp MK and former Labor party chairwoman, demanded a halt to the counting of votes. She had alleged “massive irregularities” and that hundreds of polling boxes were “knowingly tampered with.”

“Trucks carrying ballot boxes from Haifa and Hadera only arrived at the [vote] counting center late in the morning, after wandering around all night accompanied only by Nissenkorn’s people,” The Marker quoted Yachimovich’s election headquarters as saying.

Nissenkorn’s camp dismissed the charges, saying that Yachimovich was “out of touch with reality.”

On Thursday evening, Tel Aviv District Court Judge Eitan Orenstein turned down a petition to halt the vote count, and it was concluded in Nissenkorn’s favor.