Umno says to take legal action over Port Klang seat

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

January 20, 2011

Teng declared the state seat vacant effective January 16. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 — Selangor Umno deputy chief Datuk Noh Omar confirmed today that Badrul Hisham Abdullah will seek a court declaration that he is still the Port Klang assemblyman.

However, Noh admitted that Selangor Speaker Datuk Teng Chang Khim can declare the assemblyman’s seat vacant and is waiting for Teng to inform the Election Commission (EC).

Badrul, however, refused to comment today when asked by reporters when he would file the case.

“No comment. I will only inform tomorrow,” he said.

He added that he will also attend next week’s emergency state assembly sitting.

Yesterday, Teng declared the state seat vacant effective January 16 after deciding that Badrul had been absent from assembly sittings for six months without leave.

However, Badrul claimed to have sent a letter asking for leave in November when the last sitting was held due to health reasons, saying that he attended the first day of the sitting.

The Port Klang assemblyman also claimed that his seat was declared vacant because it was an act of revenge by his former party PKR.

However, Teng has replied that he only received Badrul’s application for leave in December rather than before or during the sitting from November 8-15 and that his reasons were not concrete.

Teng also showed The Malaysian Insider the letter that Badrul sent, admitting that he had been absent for the entire duration of the November sitting.

Badrul won the Port Klang seat as a PKR member in 2008 but left the following year before joining Umno in 2010.

Bernama reported that EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof as saying that Teng should have informed the EC before declaring the vacancy.

Abdul Aziz said the EC would study the laws of Selangor and the Federal Constitution before deciding if there was a vacancy or not.

This follows from the constitutional crisis in Perak that began in 2009 due to Barisan Nasional’s takeover where the Federal Court ruled that the EC was the body that decided whether a seat was vacant.

However, the judgment also said that this did not apply in Johor, Negri Sembilan, Selangor and Terengganu as their constitutions provided that “a casual vacancy shall be filled within 60 days from the date on which it occurs.”

The apex court said the constitutions of these four states had intentionally omitted the establishment by the commission of a casual vacancy. - Malaysian Insider