Knesset speaker rejects High Court recommendation that MKs redo tainted vote for state comptroller

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana rejects last week’s High Court recommendation that lawmakers rerun their vote of Michael Rabello for the position of state comptroller due to concerns that the required secrecy of the ballot was violated in the original, highly controversial election this month.

“The Knesset has already spoken,” Ohana writes in a post on X. In a short announcement attached to his post, Ohana writes that “for all the reasons detailed in the preliminary response to the petition and during the hearing,” he has decided not to hold a repeat vote.

Last Thursday, during a hearing to consider a petition against the vote by the opposition, court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg said that the justices were “suggesting a procedural step that does not interfere with the discretion of the Knesset. In simple Hebrew: do it again.”

Sohlberg gave the respondents — the Knesset itself, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Rabello, who is Netanyahu’s longtime lawyer — until Monday to respond, saying that otherwise the court would issue a conditional order against them.

The petitions noted that at least seven coalition MKs had recorded themselves voting for coalition candidate Rabello, allegedly on the instructions of senior Likud officials who wanted them to demonstrate their loyalty. The petitioners argued that the requirement of Basic Law: State Comptroller that the election be held by secret ballot was therefore violated.

According to Channel 13, Ohana’s decision was made despite disagreement from the Knesset’s legal advisers and will likely lead to an interim ruling and a further hearing in the High Court.