Supreme Court hears petitions against Israel’s new state comptroller vote

Israel’s High Court of Justice heard petitions on Thursday challenging the Knesset’s election of attorney Michael Ravilo as state comptroller. The hearing came after a political uproar over the voting procedure, and former Supreme Court justice Yosef Elron, who had been a candidate for the post, joined the petitioners and said the second round of voting was unlawful.

The panel hearing the case included Deputy Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg, Justice Gila Canfy-Steinitz and Justice Ruth Ronen. Elron asked the court to issue an interim order freezing Ravilo’s entry into office and to require a new vote in the Knesset. In a statement cited at the start of the week, he said he was joining the petitioners’ claims “insofar as they concern the illegality of the second vote held in the Knesset.”

Ravilo was elected about two weeks ago after two rounds. In the first round, no candidate reached the required majority of 61 MKs. In the second round, Ravilo received 61 votes, while Elron got 57.

The controversy began after MK Katti Shitrit said she intended to photograph her ballot behind the privacy screen, even though the vote was secret. Following opposition protests, the Knesset legal adviser recommended banning phones from the ballot area, and lawmakers held a repeat vote. Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana later said MPs could photograph themselves, but not be instructed to photograph the ballot. Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel then said coalition MKs had been forced to document their vote, calling it, “to my regret, in a disgraceful way, MKs from the coalition were required, unfortunately like in non-democratic regimes, to go in and photograph behind the curtain to prove their vote.”