Twenty polling stations fitted to let Israelis with coronavirus vote
Committee seeking staff for coronavirus polling stations.
By GIL HOFFMANIsraeli delegates in Hong Kong vote in March 2020 elections(photo credit: FOREIGN MINISTRY)
The Central Elections Committee (CEC) is working on preparing up to 20 polling stations for Israelis exposed to the coronavirus, CEC head Orly Ades said on Army Radio on Sunday morning.The special polling stations will be separate from others and will be intended for voters during their 14-day isolation period. The CEC is awaiting more instructions from the Health Ministry regarding those in isolation ahead of next Monday's election.A CEC spokesman said the committee was looking for locations for the polling stations and for staff to man them.Interior Minister Arye Deri said in an interview with KAN Radio that there was no chance of postponing the election due to the virus. He said there was no need, because "we are making sure that those in isolation will be able to vote."Blue and White MK Zvi Hauser wrote the head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Blue and White MK Gabi Ashkenazi, asking him to form a subcommittee of MKs to oversee the government's preparations for the spread of the virus. Hauser had asked for a special Knesset committee to be formed to deal with the matter, but his proposal was not brought to the Knesset plenum for approval."Overseeing the handling of the spread of the virus must remain above politics and should not be postponed by elections," Hauser wrote.Hauser also wrote Defense Minister Naftali Bennett asking him to urgently appoint a permanent head of the National Emergency Authority.Yisrael Beytenu's candidate for health minister, former World Medical Association president Dr. Leonid Edelman, said the steps the government was taking to handle the coronavirus indicated that the upcoming election was more of a factor than any visitors from Korea.
