See appeals to Federal Court to overturn Court of Appeal’s decision on re-delineation
KUCHING: Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How has applied for a stay of proceeding and leave to appeal to the Federal Court on the Court of Appeal’s decision on the Election Commission’s (EC) re-delineation proposal to create 11 new seats in the state.
Racing against time, See and a Ulu Baram voter Pauls Baya, yesterday morning filed the application at the Palace of Justice at Putrajaya and they expect a hearing date to be set soon as the matter is “urgent”.
See’s application came in the nick of time as EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof had also announced yesterday morning that EC’s re-delineation proposal has been gazetted on Aug 21 and that it has been submitted to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to be tabled in the upcoming parliamentary sitting scheduled on Oct 19.
Abdul Aziz was quoted saying that as the proposal had been submitted to Najib, he considered EC to have completed its duty on the exercise.
He added that EC had received 86 objections to the creation of the 11 new seats which was the highest number of objections in the delineation exercises carried out so far.
EC’s re-delineation proposal needs only a simple majority to pass in parliament and once it goes through the due process, the
11 new seats namely Batu Kitang, Stakan, Serembu, Triboh, Gedong, Kabong, Tellian, Selirik, Murum, Samalaju and Long Lama would be included in Sarawak state election which must be called by June next year.
See, who is also State PKR vice chairman, said the only way to stop the process now was for the Federal Court to grant a stay of proceeding and allow leave to appeal to it.
He explained that the gazette mentioned by EC chairman was only on the submission of the re-delineation proposal to the
prime minister. It was not the gazette of the approval of the proposal.
“After the proposal is approved by the parliament, it will be gazetted again. Only then can it be put into effect for the 11 new seats to be contested.”
“And if we are successful (in stay application), then the whole proceeding will need to be stopped and the re-delineation proposal cannot be tabled in the parliament. Conversely, if the application is turned down, then EC can carry on with the proceedings,” See told The Borneo Post yesterday.
See and Baya challenged EC’s re-delineation proposal started with the former, on the ground that insufficient information was given to the voters, filing a case against EC to nullify EC’s recommendations and on May 14, the High Court in Kuching ruled in favour of See.
EC brought the case up to the Court of Appeal which overturned the decision of the High Court on Aug 6.
As the Court of Appeal did not grant a stay for the judgment, EC’s proposal of the 11 new seats and their boundaries again came into effect and the commission was allowed to proceed with the re-delineation exercise.
EC had proposed its re-delineation proposal following the passing of the State Assembly (Composition of Membership) Bill 2014 in last November Sarawak state legislative assembly sitting.
The passing of the bill allowed 11 new state seats to be created, resulting in the total number of state seats to be increased from 71 to 82.