[85876] The Knesset Legal Advisor to the High Court: There is no cause to invalidate the State Comptroller elections

The Knesset Legal Advisor to the High Court: There is no cause to invalidate the State Comptroller elections

Within the framework of the High Court discussions regarding the propriety of the elections for the position of State Comptroller, the Knesset Legal Advisor, Adv. Sagit Afik, submitted her official position requesting the dismissal of the petitions on the matter. According to Netael Bandel, the legal counsel's position is based on the fact that there is no real evidence that Knesset members were actually required to document their vote.

In a report by Michael Shemesh, which emphasizes his support for the narrative of government stability, Adv. Afik was quoted as clarifying that "if a directive was given to Knesset members to document their vote – it is an illegal directive, the very giving of the directive constitutes a flaw in the secrecy of the elections." However, the advisor emphasized that at this time no evidence has been presented for the existence of such an order, and noted that the Knesset's very decision to stop the second vote testifies to the seriousness of the examination conducted in real-time.

Amit Segal as well as Israel News | Without Censorship note that according to the legal counsel, the law does not include an explicit prohibition on a Knesset member photographing their vote of their own free will, in the absence of a binding directive prohibiting this in advance. This position was also presented by Ziv Rubinstein, Dafna Liel, and Political Arena.

Within the framework of News Arena, it was reported that the state even requested the court to compel the petitioners to pay legal expenses, in light of the lack of an evidentiary basis for the claims regarding coercion in documenting the vote during the elections for the position of State Comptroller.