MK Eliyahu Revivo (Likud) has submitted a bill that states that the head of the Central Elections Committee would be appointed by the Speaker of the Knesset and the Central Elections Committee and that the head of the committee would not be a Supreme Court Judge and not be appointed by the Supreme Court President as is currently.
According to the bill, the head of the Central Elections Committee will not be an acting or retired Supreme Court judge or a member of a party in the three years prior to the appointment. The bill was initiated by MK Shlomo Karhi (Likud) and was submitted by him in previous Knessets. MK Revivo is currently submitting the bill.
If the bill becomes law, the head of the Central Elections Committee would be chosen by the committee, which is made up of representatives of the parties. The Speaker of the Knesset would suggest three candidates, and the committee would elect one of the candidates as committee head with a two-thirds majority.
Currently, the head of the committee must be a Supreme Court Judge and is appointed by their colleagues on the court.

The bill has already run into opposition from within the coalition. MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) stated that, in his opinion, “There is no need to touch the makeup of the Central Elections Committee, despite the justified criticism, and damaging.”
Rothman emphasized that he opposes changes to the makeup of the Elections Committee and to the way the committee head is chosen unless they are agreed on by a very large consensus. “It’s best that the vote is done behind the veil of ignorance (which will only begin in future Knessets) since this is the only issue that the MKs truly have an understandable conflict of interest. Unfortunately, the Knesset didn’t act like that in the past, but I harshly criticized it then too.”
MK Revivo, who submitted the bill, told Israel National News: “The time has come that the Central Elections Committee, which has an important and central position in managing the democratic process in Israel, won’t be in a conflict of interest in which a Supreme Court judge that leads it is also an acting colleague of the Supreme Court judges who discuss appeals against the committee’s decisions.
Therefore, the bill that I’m promoting will allow for the appointment of a committee head who is in a clear conflict of interest which will strengthen Israeli democracy. I intend on promoting the bill using all the tools at my disposal together with my friends in the nationalist camp, as we committed to our voters from the right-wing parties,” the MK added.
I suggest to my friend MK Rothman to deeply study the bill and not automatically publish a response against it just because he is not well versed in the matter. I am sure that after he gets to know it, he will also support it fully,” Revivo concluded.