Knesset secretary says procedural request in submarine vote not unprecedented

Knesset Secretary Yardena Meller-Horowitz says it’s not unprecedented for a coalition chairman to ask for a roll-call vote, as Likud MK Miki Zohar did earlier, after questions arose on his authority to make the request. She says such a request is “something that happens from time to time and what happened today should not be viewed as a precedent.”

Zohar’s request — which was apparently initially ignored, though it remains unclear precisely when he asked — prompted a revote on a bid to form a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the submarines affair. After the opposition passed the proposal, the Likud lawmaker claimed coalition MKs expected to have their names called and therefore didn’t vote electronically and the Knesset speaker called a second vote, during which the proposal was overturned.