Question raised over power of High Court on proposed redrawing of state constituencies by Election Commission

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KUCHING: The state government is asking the High Court to decide whether it has the power to conduct the review of the proposed exercise carried out by Election Commission (EC) in redrawing the boundary of state constituencies from the current 71 to 82.

State Legal Counsel Datuk JC Fong said as this was the first case of its kind, the state government would like the court to check whether or not it had the power on such matters.

“The High Court has granted leave to two applicants namely Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How and Paul Baya of Baram to apply for judicial review because it (High Court) feels that it is entitled to review the process taken by the EC.

“As interested parties, the state government and State Legislative Assembly (DUN) will continue asking the court to clear us out regarding the landmark application for judicial review on the process taken by the EC to conduct the redrawing the boundary of state constituencies,” he told reporters at his Chinese New Year (CNY) open house here on Thursday.

Fong, who is former State Attorney General, was asked to comment on court ruling regarding the application for judicial review filed by See and Paul to declare EC notice of proposed recommendations for re-delineation of constituencies null and void.

He said the matter would be up to the EC.

“EC may or may not appeal against the ruling. I think EC will make a decision soon, while the state government and DUN as interested parties will continue asking the High Court to clear us out regarding the application.”

Fong said in normal cases, this exercise would be conducted by EC to fulfill the requirement of state legislature to increase the number of constituencies, with the report be tabled later in Parliament to decide whether or not it would be accepted.

“So whether or not the High Court could interfere in that situation, it remains a mute point. In other words, there is no clear legal authority at this point, so it could be based on such reasons that the court would want to hear further arguments on this,” he said.

Fong said at the meantime, they were interested to see two things; namely whether or not EC would appeal against the ruling, and how it would respond to the applications by See and Paul.

The judicial review application filed by See and Paul sought for a declaration of the High Court that the publication and notification of the EC on the delineation review did not comply with the provisions contained in the various Articles and 13th Schedule of the Federal Constitution and therefore, null and void.

Fong said the final decision on the review of state constituencies had been vested in Parliament but what the High Court would have to decide now would be whether or not the objections filed by the applicants were sufficient to derail the process should there be no appeal by EC.

The open house hosted by Fong was also attended by Second Resource Planning and Environment Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan.