PUTRAJAYA (Nov 17): Caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri, the Election Commission (EC) and the government have told the apex court to reject incumbent Klang Member of Parliament Charles Santiago's application for his leave to appeal motion to be heard immediately.
Their lawyer from Messrs Hafarizam Wan Aisha Mubarak gave four grounds for the denial of Charles' application namely:
- they need to reply to Charles' motion for leave to appeal at the apex court and that could not be done if the hearing is done on Thursday (Nov 17)
- furthermore they cited that Friday has been declared a public holiday and hence no hearing should take place
- besides this, they felt that should leave to appeal be granted by the apex court, it cannot stop the EC from holding elections on Saturday (Nov 19)
- they further cited two court cases, including Abdul Ghapur Salleh vs Tun Mohd Adnan Robert, that stipulate that the EC must hold elections 60 days after the dissolution of Parliament and this was the view held by the Court of Appeal earlier this week in dismissing the case.
Hence, for these reasons, they respectfully said the court should not hear the motion for leave by Charles on Thursday (Nov 17).
It is understood that a case management for Charles' matter and Pandan voter Syed Iskandar Syed Jaafar's judicial review appeal has been fixed for later on Thursday, but the outcome is yet to be known.
While Hafarizam's firm is representing Ismail Sabri, EC and the government in Charles' matter as they obtained a fiat, in the Syed Iskandar matter, where similar parties are named as respondents, they are represented by the Attorney General's Chambers.
Charles filed an originating summons while Syed Iskandar is utilising the judicial review mode of legal application.
Following case management late in the afternoon, the Federal Court ordered Ismail Sabri, the EC and the Government to file an affidavit in reply to the application by Dec 1. It also fixed Jan 5, 2023 for the hearing of Charles' motion.
This was confirmed by Charles' lawyer Surendra Ananth, and Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun who represented the defendants in the suit.
The apex court also fixed the same date of Jan 5 to hear lawyer Syed Iskandar’s motion for leave to appeal, as confirmed by senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan, who appeared for Ismail Sabri, the EC and the Government in the second case.
High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid dismissed both applications on Oct 28 when he ruled there was no need for Ismail Sabri to get the approval from Cabinet in seeking a dissolution and the decision by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to grant the dissolution was non-justiciable.
Both of them appealed to the Court of Appeal and on Tuesday the three-member bench dismissed both appeals.
"The consequential orders sought by the appellants, that is to restrain or to prohibit the EC from taking steps to conduct the GE15, are clearly not tenable in law, as the EC has a constitutional duty to conduct the election under Article 113 of the Federal Constitution, within 60 days of the dissolution of Parliament as provided by Article 55(4) of the Federal Constitution.
“The EC cannot be restrained nor prohibited from performing its constitutional duties for the aforesaid reasons. We find no merit in all the appeals, and all the appeals are dismissed,” judge Datuk Azizah Nawawi, who was leading the bench, said in her judgement.
Azizah sat with appellate judges Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Datuk See Mee Chun in the appeal.
Get our comprehensive GE15 coverage here.
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