The High Court of Justice on Sunday issued a conditional order requiring the respondents in the petitions against attorney Michael Rabello’s election as state comptroller to explain why the vote should not be canceled over allegations that the secrecy of the ballot was breached.
What the order does is shift the burden to the respondents - including the Knesset and Rabello - to show why the court should not intervene after petitioners alleged that coalition MKs documented their ballots during the June 3 vote.
The court set a hearing on the order for Sunday at 9 a.m. and instructed the respondents to file affidavits by noon on Wednesday, with the petitioners' written arguments due by 4 p.m. on Thursday.
Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg and Justices Gila Canfy-Steinitz and Ruth Ronnen added that the next stage of the case would be heard by an expanded bench of five justices, whose composition will be determined by Supreme Court President Isaac Amit.
The justices directed both sides to submit focused legal arguments, capped at 10 pages, on whether the alleged ballot recording violated the legal requirement that the state comptroller be elected by secret ballot.
Rabello elected to replace State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman
The ruling came hours after Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana rejected a proposal raised by the court at Thursday’s hearing to hold a new election, which the panel suggested could resolve the petitions without requiring a judicial decision to overturn the original vote.
The court had indicated during Thursday’s hearing that, should the Knesset decline to repeat the vote, it would consider issuing a conditional order narrowly focused on the secrecy of the ballot. Sunday’s decision follows that course.
Rabello, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s longtime attorney, was elected on June 3 to replace State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, whose term is due to end on July 3.
The election went to a second round after retired Supreme Court justice Yosef Elron received 60 votes and Rabello received 57 in the first ballot, leaving both candidates one vote short of the 61 required for election.
The second round was halted and restarted after opposition MKs alleged that coalition lawmakers were being asked to photograph or film their ballots behind the curtain. Rabello subsequently won the final vote, 61-57.
Seven petitions were filed challenging the election. They argue that recording a ballot, even without a proven instruction from party leaders, undermines the legal requirement that the state comptroller be chosen by secret vote. The petitioners say that requiring MKs to demonstrate how they voted exposes them to political pressure and defeats the purpose of the secrecy requirement.
The Knesset and Likud, for their part, have denied that there was evidence that any directive was issued to document ballots. Their representatives told the court that the petitioners had not established that lawmakers were instructed to record their votes.
At Thursday’s hearing, the panel’s questions centered on whether the ballot documentation was compatible with the law’s secrecy requirement. The justices appeared to treat that issue as distinct from broader claims raised in the petitions concerning Rabello’s professional ties to Netanyahu and Likud.