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(May 18) - The head of Central Elections Committee was kept busy yesterday with none other than the prime minister, while the rank-and-file dealt with complaints of delays at polling stations in haredi neighborhoods. Justice Eliahu Mazza was forced to threaten outgoing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with an injunction after the nation's leader was caught giving live interviews containing election propaganda to pirate haredi radio stations. Live interviews and broadcast election propaganda are banned on election day and MK Elie Goldschmidt, One Israel's representative on the CEC, rushed to file a complaint against Netanyahu. During a hearing with Mazza, Likud MK Ruby Rivlin informed Netanyahu that if he did not desist, the chairman of the CEC would issue an immediate injunction. Netanyahu promised to stop the interviews and Goldschmidt pushed ahead to file a complaint against Shas for allowing election propaganda on its pirate stations, including calls to its listeners to vote Netanyahu. Shas denied it was connected to the stations Goldschmidt named, but made an appeal to the broadcasters to stop anyway. Meanwhile, Rivlin filed a complaint against the delays in haredi neighborhoods where voters were put through stringent identification checks by voting committee officials from left-wing parties. Haredi voters were asked to take off their hats and glasses to confirm their identities, and the Right complained that the checks were aimed at reducing voter turnout. In response to the complaints, the committee instructed the voting committees not to overdo the inspections. In Jerusalem's Bayit Vegan neighborhood, where there were complaints of long delays caused by Meretz, the Meretz committee chairman was eventually replaced. "There are delays this year because of extra caution," said Benny Lahav, head of the CEC's monitoring center on the fifth floor of the Knesset. "The Left this year declared a war on fraud, which has resulted in heightened awareness and incidents at poll stations," said another official. Complaints came into the center from around the country, including Petah Tikva and Kfar Sava, where some voters did try to vote twice. In Bat Yam, a man who did not match his photo said he had become religious and grown a beard but was still prevented from voting. The case was sent to a regional judge for investigation. In Ashdod, there was a report of a station with ballot slips for ex-candidate Yitzhak Mordechai and none for Netanyahu or Ehud Barak. In Ramle, slips for Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu list disappeared, as did those for the pro-marijuana Green Leaf party in several areas in the country. A complaint was also filed about activists pushing slips with name of rabbis to voters. In Upper Nazareth, Likud activists were pressing ballot slips for Likud and Netanyahu onto elderly voters. Goldschmidt complained that One Israel ballot slips were being defaced in the center of the country. During the day, Mazza issued a ruling that slips with non-standard-sized letters, such as those distributed by Yisrael Beitenu, would be valid. The decision also declared valid slips with stains, cuts, defects or handwriting, as long as the name of the list or candidate remained clear. For prime minister, slips with partial or familiar names of the candidates, such as "Bibi" for Netanyahu, were also ruled acceptable. In Zarzir, the committee decided to separate rival clans into two different polls. In reports from polling stations: -Voters waited for up to two hours at polling station 428 at the Chorev School in Jerusalem's Kovshei Katamon. The delay was caused by a large number of elderly voters from various institutions who cut in line. Some people, after waiting for two hours just a meter from the voting booth, gave up and went home. One man returned three times in order to vote. It took station chairman David Simon until 12:15 p.m. to make a separate booth for the elderly in a different classroom, speeding up the process. Simon declined to comment. -Voting stopped for a while at Tel Aviv's Modi'in school after the Center Party representative at the polling station claimed that Likud and Shas activists had removed Center's "Peh Heh" voting slips. -In Jerusalem's Abu Tor neighborhood, two dozen angry voters, who had arrived to vote at 6:55 a.m., found that the voting booths were not ready and stood outside for nearly an hour. Raphael Freeman, David Zev Harris and Elli Wohlgelernter contributed to this report
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