JERUSALEM, May 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The director-general of Israeli Likud said Sunday that the charge of polling fraud was a "crude invention," Israel Radio reported.

    Arik Barami said an external human-resources firm was managing supervision of the polls, and that each polling booth was being manned by a site supervisor, an attorney and two observers, one in favor of the plan and one against it.

    The 193,190 registered Likud members will be eligible to vote at 443 polling stations across the country from 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) till10 p.m. (1900 GMT). Results are expected by midnight local time.

    Disengagement opponents are worried there will be fraud at the polls. They said Likud officials have limited their ability to supervise the voting in several locations, including Jerusalem, by compelling them to stand a distance away from the voting station and barring them from walking around freely.

    In response, pullout opponents blocked the entrance to a Jerusalem site in which several polling booths were located, refusing to allow voters to go in until the limitations on supervision were removed.

    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday issued a last-minute appeal to cabinet ministers, urging them to vote for his disengagement plan and calling on other Likud Party members to do the same.

    Sharon said the vote would determine the direction in which Israel was headed. Enditem