Seven seek right to have lawyer at EC’s local inquiries

KUALA LUMPUR: Seven people are seeking a judicial review of the Election Commission’s decision to deny them the right to have a lawyer act for them in local inquiries to hear objections to its redelineation exercise.

Chua Yee Ling, Chai Wee Siong, Hashim Yusof, Zamri Yusof, Muhammad Arafat, Mohd Isa Ahmad and Dr Chong Fat Full are seeking leave from the High Court for a judicial review against the EC and its chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Hashim Abdullah.

They are applying for a declaration that the EC’s local inquiries were invalid and ought to be struck out as they were not in accordance with Article 5 of the Federal Constitution (on liberty of the person) and Section 18 and 19 of the Commissions of Enquiry Act.

Section 18 of the Act elaborated on the right to representation by counsel.

The inquiries involved in the application are Bukit Selambau and Bakar Bata (state seats in Kedah); Kuala Sepetang and Tambun (state and parliamentary seat respectively in Perak); and the parliamentary seat of Ledang and state seats of Semerah and Bukit Batu in Johor.

In an affidavit to support the application, Chua said they had applied for a representation by counsel but were denied for all the seven inquiries. Among others, Chua said that the denial of a counsel’s representation had resulted in them not being able to give an effective objection at those inquiries.

This was in contradiction to natural justice, Chua said, adding that they were not seeking for costs as it was filed on public interest.

They filed the application for leave at the High Court (Appellate and Special Powers) registry through their lawyer Shahid Adli Kamaruddin yesterday.

Speaking to reporters later, Shahid said that the applicants were spokesmen for a group of 100 people who had objected to EC’s proposed redelineation of parliamentary and state seats in Kedah, Perak and Johor.