Court quashes bid by Maria and 106 others to challenge redelineation report.
The High Court today dismissed a judicial review application by over 10,000 Selangor voters to challenge the Election Commission’s (EC) redelineation report will be used in the May 9 polls.
In her judgment, Justice Datuk Azimah Omar held that the 107 applicants representing the 10,000 voters were not affected by EC’s redrawing of electoral boundaries, and as such, don’t have locus standi to mount the challenge.
“The 107 applicants are simply not in the constituencies in question,” she said.
The judge pointed out that the applicants must prove that they were adversely affected by the EC’s decision.
“There are no reasons whatsoever which warrant this court to interfere with the Parliament’s conducts or the Parliament’s privilege,” she added.
The lawsuit was filed on March 20 at the High Court here by former Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah who is among the 107 voters.
Other applicants in the lawsuit were Selangor lawmakers such as Hannah Yeoh, Xavier Jayakumar, Tony Pua, Lau Weng San, Rajiv Rishyakaran, Haniza Mohamed Talha and Gan Pei Nei.
The voters are from 11 parliamentary seats and 16 state seats in Selangor.
The judicial review application named the EC, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Aman Mulia as respondents.
The 107 groups are seeking for four court orders, including a declaration that the EC’s failure to hold local enquiries for the 107 objections to its redelineation exercise was “unconstitutional”, and an order to compel the EC to hold local enquiries for the group.
They also want the courts to declare that the final redelineation report submitted by the EC to the prime minister on March 9 is unconstitutional and to quash this report.
Additionally, they want the courts to issue a stay order to freeze the tabling, debate, discussion or voting on the EC’s redelineation report in the Dewan Rakyat until the end of this lawsuit.
The redelineation report was however tabled in Dewan Rakyat on March 28, and approved with a simple majority. – MMO