Likud Members Expected to Be Summoned in State Comptroller Election Investigation

Several Likud members are anticipated to be summoned for police testimony regarding the controversial vote for Israel's State Comptroller. On Sunday morning, Knesset member Sharren Haskel testified after the Attorney General's legal advisor Gali Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Isman instructed police to investigate whether she or Likud submitted a false affidavit about video recordings taken during the vote in the Knesset.

Haskel, chair of the Israel Atid party, stated she would reveal who instructed her to present footage of her vote in the election, which the Supreme Court later invalidated due to breaches of voting secrecy. She affirmed her full cooperation with police and signed a confidentiality affidavit. In her affidavit to the Supreme Court, Haskel claimed that Likud candidates pressured members of the New Hope faction to support their candidate without independent deliberation, requiring them to record their votes on video and show the footage to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as proof.

Likud has denied these allegations, asserting that any recordings were made voluntarily by Knesset members without directives to violate voting secrecy. They also noted that Haskel did not specify who allegedly gave her the order to film. Haskel recently resigned from the government over the law freezing arrests of absconders and is currently engaged in a legal battle to split from the New Right faction to maintain party funding and strengthen her negotiating position ahead of upcoming elections.

Her affidavit argues that the faction changed its identity, citing the demand to present her voting footage to Netanyahu as evidence. The Supreme Court has already annulled the disputed vote and ordered a new election for the State Comptroller position.