Election Court decisions have tainted judiciary, says Anwar

The dismissal of several election petitions by the courts is "hideous and shameful" and has tainted the country’s judiciary, said opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar said today the decisions by the judges were illogical but the opposition would only think of its next course of action after it had exhausted all legal avenues to challenge the May 5 general election results.

“The judiciary has painted a worrying picture as by dismissing these applications without proper basis was irresponsible,” he said during a press conference at the PKR headquarters in Tropicana.

“Among the reasons given by the courts in one instance was that the petitioner did not file the application personally. Such reasons cannot be accepted as in the many cases which I filed, I have never needed to do it myself as we have lawyers.”

He said the opposition has more applications to be filed on other issues, such as the indelible ink, which are expected to be heard next month.

Anwar was answering questions on what the opposition plans to do next after its petitions were thrown out of court

Anwar said those who called for the return of preventive laws were thinking like former US president George W. Bush who had introduced similar legislation, the Patriot Act, during his tenure.

He said the Barisan Nasional-led government often chose tighter control and sacrificing civil liberties in times of crisis.

“Many countries do not have the Emergency Ordinance or the Internal Security Act, yet they can still deal with crime,” said Anwar.

Shooting cases, which are currently on the rise has caused alarm among the public with the Home Minister Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi leading the charge to reinstate preventive laws.

Anwar also said Putrajaya would introduce the goods and services tax (GST) as a way to stave off a ratings downgrade.

The former finance minister in the past argued that the new tax scheme was unnecessary and had said the country debt could be reduced by reigning corruption.

Last week, citing gloomier prospects brought about by the country's rising debt burden, international rating agency Fitch Ratings cut its outlook on Malaysia’s sovereign debt to negative.