GE15: Santiago, Pandan voter fail in bid to halt polls

PUTRAJAYA: Former Klang MP Charles Santiago and Pandan voter Dr Syed Iskandar Syed Jaafar Al Mahdzar, who both sought to halt the 15th General Election, have failed in their appeals at the Court of Appeal.

A three-judge panel chaired by Justice Azizah Nawawi unanimously dismissed the appeals in a decision here on Tuesday (Nov 15).

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 the general election due to the rainy season and floods.

On Oct 14, Syed Iskandar, 55, filed an application for leave to initiate judicial review in seeking a declaration that the request by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on Oct 9 for the dissolution of Parliament pursuant to 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 (who is a defendant) on Santiago's originating summons and dismissed the leave application by Syed Iskandar on grounds that the matter at hand was non-justiciable.

Justice Azizah said the High Court judge was not wrong in his decision to dismiss both legal challenges.

She said it has been ruled in several cases that the absolute discretion of the King was non-justiciable, including the case of former Perak mentri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, where the Federal Court held that that the decision whether or not to dissolve the Perak state legislative assembly was in 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 15th General Election.

"In any event, the consequential order sought by the appellants, that is to restrain or to prohibit the EC from taking steps to conduct the 15th GE is clearly not tenable in law as the EC has a constitutional duty to conduct the 15th GE under Article 113 of the Federal Constitution within 16 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.

"For the aforesaid reasons, we find no merit in all the appeals and all the appeals are hereby dismissed," Justice Azizah said.

The court did not make an order as to costs.