Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman instructed police to examine whether the Likud party or MK Sharren Haskel submitted a false affidavit to the High Court of Justice concerning the filming of ballots in the election for state comptroller.
The High Court previously annulled the Knesset election between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attorney Michael Rabello and retired Supreme Court justice Yosef Elron. The justices found a substantial flaw in the voting process and ordered a new ballot, which has yet to take place. It remains unclear whether it will be held before the next general election.
(Photo: Shalev Shalom)
The vote was invalidated after several lawmakers photographed themselves casting ballots in an election that is legally required to be secret.
Likud has repeatedly maintained that no instruction was given to lawmakers to violate the secrecy of the vote or document their ballots. In an affidavit submitted to the High Court on Wednesday, the party said: “The photographs were taken at the personal initiative of the members of Knesset, without any demand being made of them to do so.”
Haskel, however, gave a different account in an affidavit whose contents were published last week. She said the Likud-backed candidate had been presented as the person whom members of the New Hope faction were required to support, “without reservation and without the possibility of expressing an independent position.”
“During the repeat voting round, members of the New Hope faction were required to document their votes by filming themselves and to present the footage to the prime minister, a member of the Likud faction, as proof of how they had voted,” Haskel said.
The contradiction between the two versions led Baharav-Miara to instruct police to take an open statement from Haskel to determine what instruction was allegedly issued and who gave it.
Based on the information Haskel provides, authorities could decide to open a criminal investigation into whether a false affidavit was submitted to the High Court regarding the vote.