10,000 voters take EC to task

> Move follows failure to consider redelineation exercise objections

PETALING JAYA: More than 10,000 voters are taking the Election Commission (EC) to task over its failure to take into consideration some of the objections raised against the redelineation exercise as well as the commission’s failure to hold any local inquiries for those objections.

Electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 acting chairman Shahrul Aman Mohd Saari said the affected individuals have filed an application with the High Court in Shah Alam seeking a stay order to stop EC’s final report from being tabled in Parliament.

“We have filed two applications, one on March 8 and another on March 20, both with the intention of preventing the redelineation exercise’s final report from being tabled, discussed, debated or voted on in Parliament,” Shahrul Aman said at the Bersih 2.0 headquarters yesterday.

Shahrul Aman said in the latest application filed with the commission by former Bersih chairman Maria Chin Abdullah along with 106 applicants, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia have been named as the defendants.

He said each of the applicants represents more than 10,000 Selangor voters from 17 state constituencies and 11 parliamentary constituencies, who each had raised their objections with the commission.

“However, the commission failed to hold any local inquiries for the group despite them having submitted their objections.

“This failure of not holding any local inquiry will tarnish the commission’s reputation and shows that the commission is denying the rights of the 10,000 voters of having their objections heard. This goes against the Federal Constitution,” he added.

To make matters worse, Shahrul Aman said, the commission did not inform them of the status of their representation or on its local inquiry even though they had sent two official letters to the commission on Feb 28 and March 12.

He said as such it would not be valid for Najib to table the report in Parliament when the EC has yet to complete or have its second local inquiry in Selangor.

Also present at the press conference was Selangor state assembly speaker Hannah Yeoh who said the state government would do everything it can to challenge the EC in court.