High Court: Knesset must explain why state comptroller vote should not be annulled
Statement comes after Knesset speaker rejected call to redo vote, which saw Michael Rabello winning after MKs were allegedly told to video themselves putting his name in ballot box
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
The High Court of Justice announced Sunday that a panel of five justices will convene for a hearing on the controversial June 3 vote for the new state comptroller, just after Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana rejected the court’s call to redo the election.
The Knesset, Likud, and the prime minister will have to explain “why the election… should not be annulled, in light of the allegation regarding the violation of the secrecy of the vote,” the justices wrote in a statement.
The vote saw Michael Rabello, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s longtime attorney, elected to the role, in what critics alleged was a tainted ballot.
The court’s statement came just hours after Ohana rejected its recommendation that lawmakers redo the vote, saying: “The Knesset has already spoken.”
Rabello’s opposition-backed rival, Supreme Court justice Yosef Elron, led him 60-57 in the first secret ballot, which was inconclusive because a comptroller needs a majority of at least 61 to be elected.
Rabello won 61-57 in the second ballot, when some coalition lawmakers videoed themselves voting, allegedly on the orders of senior Likud officials who suspected the lawmakers had voted for Elron the first time around.
In a Thursday High Court hearing on petitions against Rabello’s election, judges expressed concern that the ballot’s required secrecy was violated, and suggested the parliament redo vote.
Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg called the proposal to redo the vote “a procedural step that does not interfere with the discretion of the Knesset.” Sohlberg told respondents — Netanyahu, Rabello and the Knesset itself — that they had until Monday to respond or face a conditional order against them.
In a brief announcement appended to Ohana’s X post on Sunday, the Knesset speaker said that he was rejecting the court’s advice “for all the reasons detailed in the preliminary response to the petition and during the hearing.”
Knesset representatives had argued during the hearing that neither the different results of the two ballots, nor the fact some lawmakers videoed themselves voting for Rabello in the second round, were proof that orders had come from on high for the lawmakers to vote for him after the first round.
Ohana and other Netanyahu allies regularly accuse the judiciary of overstepping its bounds at the expense of the legislature. The government has repeatedly sought to increase its own control over the judicial system, including by attempting to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, in a move the High Court has annulled, citing improper procedure.
While the state comptroller is not a law enforcement official, the institution is considered vital for impartial reviews and audits of government.
The Times of Israel Community.