Yisrael Beytenu candidate offers 'bribes'

MK Leon Litinetsky promises gov't-funded jobs as polling station staff on Election Day to party activist that turns out most voters.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Likud primary polling place 390 (photo credit: Ben Spier/screenshot)
Likud primary polling place 390
(photo credit: Ben Spier/screenshot)
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.
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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.