A video published in an Israel newspaper Monday shows that Finance Minister Roni Bar-On (Kadima), when he was a Likud Knesset Member in 2003, voted twice in a parliamentary vote. The infraction, unlike previous double voting scandals, apparently took place when the MK for whom he voted was present.
Former Likud MK Yechiel Hazan was convicted of voting in place of an absent Knesset colleague in a similar vote during the same period of time. He was sentenced to four months in jail for what the court stated was a grave offense.
Bar-On told the media Monday, after Yediot Acharonot published the video, that he does not recall the incident, but is sorry if he did push the voting button in place of former Likud MK Inbal Gavrieli.
National Union MK Tzvi Hendel and the Israel Law Forum are not satisfied with Bar-On's apology, and have demanded that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz order the police to investigate.
"There's no reason why Bar-On, whose political rise to power began in sin, should have a different fate than those whose political career was terminated," said MK Hendel.
The Forum stated, "If the new evidence is clear that MK Bar-On voted twice, equality before the law demands that the police [investigate the case] exactly as they indicted and convicted Hazan."
At the time of the vote in May, 2003, Bar-On recommended that the police investigate the double voting charges and was head of the committee that discussed removing Hazan's immunity.
The film shows that Bar-On jumped to push the voting button during a vote on economic programs.
During the probe of Hazan, former Justice Minister Amnon Rubinstein said that "unintended double-voting takes place very often" and the MKs inform the Knesset speaker of the mistake. "But intentional double-voting? That I have never seen. I’ve never even heard it mentioned," he stated to the New York Jewish Forward