Supreme Court Deputy President and Central Elections Committee Chair Noam Solberg said Tuesday, at a closed Hebrew University event, that if an emergency makes it impossible to hold elections that are free, equal and accessible to all voters, a limited postponement may be justified, but only if it does not become a tool for the government to extend its term. He described this as a “last resort” principle.
Solberg presented the remarks as part of a joint paper with Acting Central Elections Committee Director General Adv. Dean Livneh on elections during crisis and the possibility of postponement. The paper was published under the title, “Emergency Elections, Election Postponement, Extension of Term and the Boundaries of Democratic Legitimacy.”
He outlined six tests for any decision to delay elections in a crisis. The first is necessity, meaning the burden lies on those seeking a delay, and not on those insisting elections be held. “It is not enough that there be a general crisis,” he said. “It must be shown that it significantly harms the ability to hold free, equal and genuine elections.” The second is temporariness, with a specific new date or a clear mechanism to set one. The third is institutional pluralism, which requires examining not only how many days are postponed, but also the territorial scope and the impact on participation, competition, voter rolls, candidacies and funding.
The fourth principle is last resort, after exhausting alternatives such as early voting, special polling stations, mobile polling stations, and arrangements for soldiers, evacuees and quarantined voters. The fifth is transparency and reasoned explanation, with public facts that can be reviewed by the public and the courts. The sixth is a return to normalcy, with מראש defined exit terms for the postponement, including the new date, the determining date for the voter register, and rules for candidacies and financing.
Solberg said the committee is preparing and running scenarios for emergencies, including elections in wartime, and added that it must be ready, “God forbid,” for questions such as whether elections should be delayed and whether the current Knesset’s term should be extended. He said he hopes Israel never reaches a situation where postponement must be considered.
Earlier, Deputy Chair MK Yael Ron Ben-Moshe of Blue and White asked Solberg for detailed information on how the authorities are preparing for threats to election integrity, including foreign interference, false information and misleading uses of artificial intelligence. She warned of disinformation campaigns, foreign influence efforts and manipulative AI tools used to shape public opinion.
