Voter fails in bid to stop PD by-election

KUALA LUMPUR: A voter yesterday failed in his bid to stop the by- election for the Port Dickson parliamentary constituency on Oct 13.

Rosmadi Mohd Kassim, who is a voter in the constituency, had his application for an order to nullify the Election Commission ( EC) notice dated Sept 20 dismissed by the High Court.

He had challenged the resignation of the Port Dickson MP, Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah, to pave the way for PKR president- elect Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to contest the byelection and become an MP.

Judge Datuk Nordin Hassan denied Rosmadi’s application for leave to initiate judicial review proceedings after hearing arguments from Rosmadi’s counsel Datuk M. Reza Hassan, Danyal Balagiopal’s counsel Ranjit Singh and Senior Federal Counsel Datuk Amarjeet Singh, who appeared for the EC, the respondent.

Amarjeet Singh, when approached by reporters, said his side argued that Danyal Balagopal had stated in his letter to the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat that he is offering his parliamentary seat voluntarily to Anwar and that the latter had agreed to it. Anwar is now a candidate in the by- election.

“If somebody wants to resign, he has the right to resign … and the only limitation under the constitution is it must be voluntary in writing under his hand and he signs it. No evidence shows that it was not voluntary. Therefore, the application was dismissed,” Amarjeet Singh said, adding that the court made no order as to costs.

Ranjit Singh said the judge ruled that there was no arguable case in Rosmadi’s legal challenge.

He said he also submitted that Article 51 of the Federal Constitution allows an MP or senator to tender his resignation to the President of the Dewan Negara or Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat.

“There is nothing to stop a senator or MP from resigning,” he said.

M. Reza said he would get instructions from his client on whether he wanted to appeal against the decision of the court. “It is a difficult threshold to pass,” he added.

In his application filed on Sept 26, Rosmadi, who was a valid voter in the 14th general election on May 9 in the Port Dickson parliamentary constituency, sought an order to nullify the EC notice dated Sept 20 to hold the by- election.

He also applied for an order to have the EC declaration of a vacancy for the Port Dickson seat to be nullified and for it to be declared contrary to the law and for an injunction to stop the EC from going ahead with the byelection scheduled for Oct 13 until the court had decided on the case. — Bernama