KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 (Bernama) — The application of former Perak state assembly speaker V. Sivakumar and six others for a judicial review of the Election Commission’s (EC) decision not to hold by-elections for three state seats in Perak was set for case management on Sept 3.
High Court Senior Assistant Registrar Mohamad Izwan Mohamed Noh fixed the date in chambers upon meeting lawyer K.T. Ho for Sivakumar and the six applicants and senior federal counsel Munahyza Mustafa for the EC and another three respondents.
When asked on the development of the case, Munahyza said the court had set the date as the lawyer needed time to file an affidavit in reply to the respondent’s affidavit.
On Oct 22 last year, the six applicants were granted leave to initiate a judicial review application to quash the EC’s decision in not declaring the Behrang, Changkat Jering and Jelapang state seats vacant following the decision of the three assemblymen to be independent members of the state assembly.
They are Sivakumar, Chen Fook Chye, Tai Sing Ng and A.Sivanesan — and three voters, Ahmad Sabry Wahab (Behrang), Abdul Latif Ariffin (Changkat Jering) and Foo Hon Wai (Jelapang).
In the judicial review application, they named the EC and three assemblymen — Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang), Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu (Changkat Jering) and Datuk Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang) as respondents.
They wanted the court to compel the EC to declare the seats vacant following the resignation of three assemblymen from the Parti KLeadilan Rakyat (PKR) and DAP, and an injunction to stop the trio from acting and carrying out the functions and duties of assemblymen.
They also wanted a writ of “quo warranto” to compel the trio to show why they were still the representatives of their constituencies and could carry out the responsibilities, functions and duties of assemblymen.
Jamaluddin and Osman won their seats on PKR tickets and Hee, under the DAP banner, in the 2008 general election.
They later left their parties and pledged support for Barisan Nasional, leading to the collapse of the PAS-PKR-DAP coalition government in Perak which was then led by Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.
— BERNAMA