Anwar withdraws applications over right to vote lawsuit

PUTRAJAYA: PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday withdrew his review and leave to appeal applications over his lawsuit for a declaration on his right to vote in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election in 2015.

His counsel, Shahid Adli Kamarudin, told reporters yesterday that the notice of discontinuance of the two matters was filed on Friday.

He said he had informed the Federal Court deputy registrar Wan Fatimah Zaharah Wan Yussof of the withdrawal when the matter came up for case management in her chambers yesterday.

Also present in the case management proceedings were federal counsel V. Krishna Priya, who appeared for the defendants, namely the Election Commission (EC), its then chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof and the government.

Anwar, 70, lost his appeal at the Court of Appeal on June 13, last year, which had upheld a High Court dismissal of his bid for a declaration on his right to vote in the by-election on May 7, 2015.

The High Court had ruled on July 15, 2016 that the EC had no jurisdiction to bring him to the polling station for him to cast his vote in any election.

It ruled that a prisoner who had been registered as a voter before his conviction had the right to vote, but the EC had no jurisdiction to bring him to the polling station for him to cast his vote in any election.

On Nov 10, last year, Anwar also filed an application to review a Federal Court decision in disallowing him to attend the hearing of his leave to appeal bid in respect of this lawsuit.

It was filed on grounds of coram failure in the previous Federal Court’s threeman panel chaired by Court of Appeal President Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin.

He said that Zulkefli’s appointment as additional judge of the Federal Court and Court of Appeal President was unconstitutional.

Anwar was released from prison on May 16 this year after serving his fiveyear sentence, with time taken off for good behaviour, after the Federal Court upheld his conviction for sodomy.

Anwar was also granted full pardon by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V. - Bernama