Court dismisses appeals to stop GE15

PUTRAJAYA: Former Klang MP Charles Santiago and Pandan voter Dr Syed Iskandar Syed Jaafar Al Mahdzar, who both sought to halt GE15 have failed in their appeals at the Court of Appeal.

A three-judge panel chaired by Justice Azizah Nawawi unanimously dismissed the appeals yesterday.

Justices Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and See Mee Chun also sat on the panel.

On Oct 11, Santiago filed the originating summons to seek a court order in his bid to stop GE15 due to the monsoon season and floods.

Meanwhile, on Oct 14, Syed Iskandar, 55, applied for leave to initiate a judicial review in seeking a declaration that the request by caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to the Yang di-pertuan Agong (YDPA) on Oct 9 for the dissolution of Parliament under Articles 40(2)(b) and 55(2) of the Federal Constitution is null and void and of no effect.

However, on Oct 28, High Court judge Justice Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid allowed a striking-out application filed by Ismail Sabri (a defendant) on Santiago’s originating summons and dismissed the leave application by Syed Iskandar on the grounds that the matter at hand was non-justiciable.

Justice Azizah said the High Court judge was not wrong in dismissing both legal challenges.

She said it had been ruled in several cases that the absolute discretion of the YDPA was non-justiciable, including the case of former Perak mentri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, where the Federal Court held that the decision whether or not to dissolve the Perak state legislative assembly was at the absolute discretion of the state Ruler, the Sultan of Perak.

The law provision under the State Constitution, she said, was material to Article 55(2) of the Federal Constitution.

The panel also said that the Elections Commission (EC) could

not be stopped from conducting the GE15.

“In any event, the consequential order sought by the appellants, that is, to restrain or to prohibit the EC from taking steps to conduct GE15 is not tenable in law as the EC has a constitutional duty to conduct GE15 under Article 113 of the Federal Constitution within 60 days of the dissolution as provided under Article 55(4).

“The EC cannot be restrained nor prohibited from performing its constitutional duties under the Federal Constitution,” Justice Azisah said.