A week after Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman banished three of his
party’s MKs, he has a new scandal on his hands involving a candidate for the
next Knesset that he put on his party’s list in their stead.
Channel 10
revealed a recording Wednesday night of former MK Leon Litinetsky promising
government funded jobs as polling station staff on Election Day to whichever
party activists bring out the most voters.
Litinetsky, who is in the
realistic 34th slot on the joint Likud-Yisrael Beytenu list, was caught on tape
promising in Russian NIS 800 for eight hours of “easy work” or NIS 300 for
parttime work.
Central Elections Committee spokesman Giora Pordes said
such promises were against the law. He also said the sums quoted were
incorrect.
“Based on the report, it appears to be a case of election
bribery and misuse of government funds,” Pordes said. “We asked for the video,
which we will submit to Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein to instruct the law
enforcement authorities to deal with it immediately.”
Boaz Nol, a
candidate with The Tzipi Livni Party, intends to file a police complaint against
Yisrael Beytenu and Litinetsky Thursday morning at the Tel Aviv police
station.
Labor candidate Moshe Mizrahi, a former head of the police
investigations department, said he was not surprised that such things happen in
a party led by Liberman, who he called corrupt. He said he believed the report
was just the tip of the iceberg in Yisrael Beytenu’s corruption.
Despite
the evidence in the video, Litinetsky said he was unaware that polling station
positions were being offered for bringing voters.
A Yisrael Beytenu
spokesman said the matter was being investigated by the party. He stressed that
the party does not issue such instructions to its activists.
“It was
probably a misunderstanding and not more than that,” said MK Faina Kirschenbaum,
the party’s secretary-general.
In other news involving the Central
Elections Committee, the committee disqualified an advertisement of the Strong
Israel Party for being racist against Arabs.
Strong Israel leader Arieh
Eldad expressed outrage that the committee ruled in favor of a request by Meretz
candidate Mossy Raz.