‘Do it again’: High Court recommends Knesset hold new, ‘proper’ state comptroller election

The High Court of Justice strongly recommends that a new election for the position of state comptroller be held in the Knesset, due to concerns that the original election earlier this month violated the requirement that it be held by secret ballot.

“We are suggesting a procedural step that does not interfere with the discretion of the Knesset: in simple Hebrew, do it again. Whatever you decide is fine, but just do it in a clean and proper manner,” says Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg at the end of a lengthy hearing.

During the vote on June 3, at least seven coalition MKs recorded themselves voting for the coalition candidate, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s longtime lawyer Michael Rabello, allegedly on the instruction of senior Likud officials.

“At the moment there is an unwanted cloud… a bitter taste,” Sohlberg says of the election.

“Some of the votes are apparently problematic. Members of Knesset acted in opposition to the instructions of the Knesset legal adviser [not to record their votes] and through the creation of a new principle that it is ok to record [one’s vote],” the deputy court president adds.

Sohlberg gives the respondents — include the Knesset itself, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Rabello — until Monday to respond, saying that otherwise the court will issue a conditional order against them.