Selangor fails to get info on 136,000 voters
> Federal Court dismisses bid to procure documents on redelineation exercise
PUTRAJAYA: The Selangor government yesterday failed in its final bid to obtain documents from the Election Commission (EC) containing information pertaining to 136,272 voters in a redelineation exercise.
This follows the Federal Court’s dismissal of an application for leave to appeal over an application for discovery of documents and to cross-examine the EC chairman.
Chief Justice Tan Sri Raus Shariff, who sat with judges Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin and Tan Sri Aziah Ali, said the decision was unanimous.
He said leave is only granted if the questions raised is a novel issue and of public importance.
He made the order on grounds that the Selangor government did not fulfil the requirement under Section 96(a) of the Courts of Judicature Act for their application to be heard.
“There is no circumstances to justify the granting of leave for the questions (which was put forward by the applicant). We find that there is no novel issue, arising from the proposed questions.”
Raus said the threshold of Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 cannot be met. There was no order as to costs. The state government had filed a judicial review on Oct 19 last year against the EC and two others – EC chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Hashim Abdullah and Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh – in regard to actions taken in the redelineation exercise affecting Selangor.
It sought an order to quash a notice under Section 4 of the “Thirteenth Schedule” of the Federal Constitution, titled “Proposed recommendation for federal and state constituencies in the states of Malaya”, dated Sept 15, 2016.
The state government also sought an order to compel the EC to publish a new notice and new recommendations, that comply with the Thirteenth Schedule.