PUTRAJAYA: Pakatan Rakyat has failed in its appeal at the Court of Appeal here yesterday to reinstate its civil suit against the Election Commission (EC) to challenge last year’s general election results in all 222 parliamentary seats.
In a majority 2-1 decision, the three-member panel of judges led by Justice Datuk Alizatul Khair Osman Khairuddin
said the appellants should proceed their challenge by way of election petition at the election court.
She said the civil court did not have the jurisdiction to hear an election case and the application seeking removal of election commissioners.
Justices Alizatul and Datuk Rohana Yusuf gave the majority decision while Justice Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham dissented by saying that the High Court had the jurisdiction to hear any allegation of breach of constitutionality against the Election Commission.
PAS, DAP, PKR and five individuals, Dzulkefly Ahmad, M.Manogaran and Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who were candidates in the general election, and two voters, Arifin Abd Rahman and R.Abbo, filed the civil suit in July last year against the EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, his then deputy Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar and five other members of the commission.
Among others, the political parties wanted a declaration that the results announced by EC at the conclusion of 13th
General Election held on May 5 last year for all 222 parliamentary seats to be declared null and void.
They also sought for the removal of the current EC leadership and fresh polls to be conducted and sought for a declaration that the EC members practiced fraud on the Malaysian electorate by the misuse of indelible ink for voting. — Bernama