Knesset legal adviser: Ohana must hold new state comptroller election as soon as possible

Knesset legal advisor Sagit Afik tells the High Court of Justice that Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana is legally obligated to hold a repeat election for the position of state comptroller as soon as possible, and preferably before the upcoming election.

The High Court ruled unanimously in July that violations by coalition MKs of the requirement that the vote for state comptroller be held by secret ballot meant that a repeat of the marred second round of voting should be held “as quickly as possible.”

Afik notes that she has already written to Ohana twice, once in July after the ruling and again in September, telling him he was obligated to set a date for a repeat ballot.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the coalition decided, however, not to hold the vote again, likely because he no longer had a majority for his candidate, his longtime lawyer Michael Rabello. Ohana, of Netanyahu’s Likud party, has therefore refused to call a new vote, stating publicly in August that he was proud to have defied the court by refusing to set a date for the repeat vote.

Social activist Yaron Gadot filed a petition to the High Court in September asking it to order Ohana to set a date for the election.

In August it was reported that 10 government employees who had submitted complaints to the State Comptroller’s Office about alleged corruption in government ministries and agencies since the previous state comptroller left office had been refused protection under whistleblower laws, because there was no serving state comptroller and only the comptroller is empowered to grant such protection.