AGC objects to Segamat voters’ bid for judicial review

The Attorney-General’s Chambers today made a preliminary objection to a judicial review application filed by 48 voters from Segamat parliamentary constituency.

The voters are seeking to quash a local inquiry’s decision to reject their application to ban 949 army personnel and their spouses from being registered as voters there. 

Senior federal counsels Susana Atan and Shamsul Bolhassan (photo) told the High Court in Kuala Lumpur that the 48 voters from DAP and Amanah had not exhausted their avenues of appeal through the inquiry. 

They claimed that the voters had already filed their appeal against the Johor Election Commission and that the appeal should be allowed to continue and be decided first. 

“They should exhaust their appeal as it could be heard before the adjudicating officer before filing the application,” the senior federal counsels said.

They cited regulation 20 of the Elections (Registration of Electors) Regulation 2002 as one of the avenues available.

However, the 48 voters led by lawyer Gobind Singh Deo argued that since the local inquiry had rejected a Parliament Hansard's recorded response by Deputy Defence Minister Mohd Johari Baharum regarding the uncompleted camp, they had the right to file the challenge. 

This, Gobind said, violated the principles of natural justice as the Hansard is a recognised document of evidence in court.

“However, in this case, the EC secretary rejected this document and also denied the lawyers representing the 48 voters to be present during the local inquiry hearing," he added.

The DAP deputy chairperson said Justice Azizah Nawawi fixed Jan 8 for a decision on whether to allow the preliminary objection or hear the leave application.

Either way, Gobind added, they will be ready to present their submission on the leave application on that day.

In a judicial review application, leave (permission) has to be obtained before the application or challenge is heard on its full merits. This is to ensure that the application is not frivolous and vexatious.

'Entry into electoral roll constitutional'

It was reported on Dec 20 that the 48 voters were granted an interim stay by Justice Kamaludin Md Said to stop the certification of the 949 voters from an army camp in Segamat, which is still under construction.

The 48 voters, aged between 32 and 74, had filed a judicial review application on Dec 14, naming the Election Commission and the Johor EC registrar Shafie Taib as respondents.

The voters, led by Abdul Wahab Hassan, are seeking a certiorari (court order) to quash the entry of the 949 names from the third quarter supplementary electoral roll 2017, which have been affirmed by the EC.

The voters also want the entry of the 949 names into the electoral roll to be declared unconstitutional, as well as costs of the application.

In their supporting affidavit, the voters claimed that the entry of the names into the electoral roll was unconstitutional according to Article 119 of the Federal Constitution, which pertains to the qualification of electors.

They are applying for a stay of the gazettement of the electoral roll, as once it is gazetted, it could not be challenged as stipulated under Section 9A of Election Act.

In addition to the action taken by DAP and Amanah voters, the PKR had through six voters also filed a similar challenge against another 102 army voters at the same camp in Segamat. - Mkini