A computer system in use by the Likud Party crashed on Election Day, harming the party headquarters' work and reportedly costing Likud at least two seats that could have brought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the 61 he needs to form a government, was over seen by Guy Benartzi, who is the nephew of Netanyahu's wife, Sara.
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Benartzi comes from the startup sector and co-founded Bancor, a company that deals with virtual currency.
Likud officials who were working with the system said the crash comprised a problem of unusual scope. These officials claimed that a few days before the March 23 election, the system had been tested, during which a number of problems were discovered. However, they said, because the person responsible for it was Netanyahu's nephew, officials were hesitant to express their concerns.
One Likud official involved in the computer failure told Israel Hayom that "Benartzi and his partners were responsible for the crash. They espoused pulling out of the Elector app and setting up a completely separate system. A few days before the election, they tested the system – and it crashed."
Other Likud officials confirmed that the system had been tested before March 23 and had worked, with the exception of minor problems "that they told us would be fixed."
These officials said that on the morning of Election Day "there was heavy use and the computer system was operating at 50% capacity until the afternoon. After that, everything worked perfectly."
According to the Likud, the system reported 3.2 million votes for Likud on Election Day, out of a potential 4 million Likud voters, a "knowledge gap" of some 800,000 votes that could in theory have secured more seats for the party.
Apart from the computer issues, sources in the Likud said that the drop in the party's number of seats since the March 2020 election occurred due to the Likud "donating" to Religious Zionist Party list leader Bezalel Smotrich by refraining from public attacked on him, and that other seats had moved from Netanyahu to Gideon Sa'ar and Naftali Benentt.
In recent days, the Likud party leadership has been asking for a probe into the system failure. No such probe has yet been approved.
When approached about the computer problem, the Likud responded in a statement that the party does not comment on campaign activity. "However, we will clarify that despite the claims, all the Likud oversight systems were operating successfully on Election Day," the party said.
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