High Court rejects petition against Ohana, but rules he violated a ruling and harmed the order of government

In depth

The Supreme Court rejected petitions against Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, which demanded that he be ordered to set a date for a second round of voting to elect the State Comptroller. The petitions were filed by various parties, but were dismissed following the elections for the 26th Knesset and the dissolution of the previous Knesset. Justices Yitzhak Amit, Khaled Kabub and Ruth Ronen considered the matter and decided not to compel the Speaker to set a new date for the vote due to the change in the Knesset's composition.

In the ruling, the High Court found that Ohana refrained for months from complying with the previous ruling that ordered the second round of the vote to be held again, contrary to the position of the Knesset Legal Adviser. The justices sharply criticized his conduct and stressed that this constitutes a violation of a court ruling and a severe harm to the order of government and the public interest.

The court found that the postponement of the vote was caused directly by the actions of the Knesset Speaker. Justice Ruth Ronen noted that there is no continuity provision for such election procedures between Knessets. According to Israel Hayom and Calcalist, due to this conduct the High Court ordered Ohana to pay court costs of 10,000 shekels.