Knesset Legal Adviser Urges Supreme Court to Reject Petitions Over State Comptroller Appointment

The Knesset’s legal adviser, attorney Shagit Afik, filed a preliminary response to the High Court of Justice asking it to reject petitions challenging the process that elected Michael Rabilo as state comptroller. The response says there is no substantial evidence that lawmakers were instructed to record their votes, and argues there is no clear legal ban on filming a ballot behind the privacy screen.

The legal opinion addressed several claims, including that lawmakers were told to document their votes, that such recording undermined the secrecy of the election, that there had been an earlier suggestion to bar members of Knesset from bringing phones into the voting booth, and allegations of a conflict of interest involving Rabilo. The office said the claims about Rabilo should have been raised before the vote, after his candidacy was announced two weeks earlier, rather than only after he won.

The legal adviser said, however, that if an instruction to record votes had in fact been given, it would be “a very serious act” with possible consequences for the validity of the entire election. It also noted that, because of the unusual circumstances of the state comptroller election, the Knesset legal staff had at the time believed phones should be banned from the booth, but that view was not issued as binding legal guidance and was not adopted.

According to testimony cited by the Knesset legal office, a so-called “three-part arrangement” was reached between coalition and opposition representatives, under which the second vote would be canceled, the Knesset Speaker would state that any instruction to document votes was invalid, and the election would be repeated without banning phones. The office said that agreement carried significant weight as long as it was not unlawful. Former Supreme Court Justice Yosef Elron, who ran against Rabilo, asked on Sunday to freeze the appointment over what he called an “illegal vote,” saying his challenge concerns only the second round in which coalition lawmakers allegedly had to film themselves voting for Rabilo. The Likud and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also backed the appointment, calling annulment of a secret parliamentary vote “an extreme and unprecedented remedy” that would be impractical and unjust.