The Movement for Government Integrity submitted a request, in a special appeal to Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein, not to allow Knesset members running in the presidential elections to sign the presidential recommendation form, and also to disqualify their vote in the elections themselves - out of fear of a clear conflict of interest.
In a letter sent by Attorney Mordechai Eisenberg, chairman of the Movement for Government Integrity, he mentions that there will indeed be candidates from among Knesset members, but also ordinary citizens. "In this state of affairs, the candidates who are Knesset members will be in a clear conflict of interest, both in everything related to signing their personal candidacy and in voting in the Knesset plenum in the process of electing the president of the state," Eisenberg writes.
This conflict of interest rises to the point of "certainty of bias," Eisenberg continues to argue, since "a person close to himself - and tainted by extraneous considerations in his judgment of whom to properly support for the presidency of the State of Israel.".
This situation also creates inequality, as "the other candidates, who are not members of Knesset, cannot vote for themselves, and are also prevented from signing the candidacy proposal form for themselves.".
In the rest of the letter, the writer refers the Knesset Speaker to the court ruling that states that legislative authority will not be exercised in the event of a conflict of interest, such as the current situation, and mentions that even in elections to the Chief Rabbinate Council, it was customary for the candidate rabbis to participate in the election process, until this authority was revoked in 2003, following the movement's appeal.
Eisenberg therefore asks the Chairman to determine that the signatures that each candidate is required to produce will not include his own signature, and that the Knesset member will not be allowed to participate in the secret ballot for the presidency of the state in elections in which he himself is a candidate for the position.
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