BREAKING NEWS

Knesset decides MKs can’t help other MKs vote

If a Knesset member is unable to vote due to a disability, they should inform the presiding Knesset speaker and then get help from an usher not another MK, Knesset legal adviser Eyal Yinon ruled Monday.
Yinon issued the ruling following a November incident in which Meretz MK Esawi Frej voted for Yesh Atid MK Karin Elharar, who was unable to vote due to her muscular dystrophy. Yinon said the Knesset should instead provide every MK with a voting device that would all them to vote.
The Knesset legal adviser said he would not reprimand Frej, due to the special circumstances of the incident, despite a request by Likud MK Oren Hazan to punish him. Yinon said the incident was not comparable to past cases of MKs voting for absent legislators, including a notorious episode involving Hazan’s father, former MK Yehiel Hazan, who was convicted of the crime of double-voting.