By Xinhua,
Jerusalem : Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on Wednesday passed in the first reading a bill which requires a prime minister to resign if indicted, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
Should an incumbent prime minister be indicted for a felony, he or she will have to step down within 30 days since the indictment is filed, and the Knesset will consider the government to have resigned as well, according to the bill.
Sixty-one lawmakers, including several ministers in the government, out of the 120-member legislature voted in favor of the bill, sponsored by lawmaker Ophir Pines-Paz, while six voted against it.
“The existing law allows the Knesset to force an acting prime minister to step down only when convicted of offenses carrying moral turpitude, thus allowing a premier or minister to stay in office while indicted for criminal offenses, which in turn hinders the proper rule of law in Israel,” said the daily quoted Pines-Pazas saying.
Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, who represented the government in the vote, opposed what he described as “the automatic consequence” of forcing an acting prime minister out of office.
“The mere decision by the attorney general to file any such indictment cannot bring forth a change of government,” he argued.
“The proper action in any such case, depending on the circumstances, would be for an acting prime minister to take personal responsibility for his conduct, or for the Knesset to vote on a motion of non-confidence.”
The preliminary endorsement came as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is embroiled in a bribery scandal, the fifth probe against him, while Pines-Paz stressed that the motion has nothing to do with the case.
“Olmert himself said he will resign if he is indicted,” he said,” The Knesset knows that an acting PM can’t stay in office if he’s facing a criminal indictment. It’s time we have a law to support that.”
Olmert, who will face another police questioning session on Friday, was not present at the vote.
Over the past few years, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu all faced police investigations when serving as the prime minister, but none of the them was indicted.