949 Segamat army voters gazetted, says lawyer

A total of 949 army voters and their spouses have been gazetted as voters in the electoral roll of the Segamat parliamentary constituency, the same day the Court of Appeal allowed the Attorney General's Chambers and Election Commission's appeal regarding the case.

This was disclosed by Michelle Ng, the lawyer for the 48 Segamat voters who had refiled their challenge last week.

"When the Court of Appeal allowed the EC's appeal on Feb 21, they gazetted the 949 voters at the incomplete army camp there as voters (on) the same day of the decision.

"Hence, the AG's Chambers is using these grounds to challenge us from obtaining leave to file a judicial review, as Section 9A of the Election Act stipulates that once a roll has been gazetted, it cannot be challenged before the court for judicial review," she told reporters.

The 48 Segamat voters re-filed their challenge on Feb 26 after the appellate court had on Feb 21 allowed the EC's appeal ruling that the 48 had not exhausted their appeal process.

Ng said they countered that argument by saying that the ouster clause could be challenged if it could be shown that the EC and its officers had acted improperly.

This, she said, is based on the Federal Court's recent decision on unilateral conversion in the case of M Indira Gandhi, where the clause was challenged because the Syariah Court was found to have acted beyond its jurisdiction.

Decision Thursday

Here, Ng said the army personnel and their spouses could not be regarded as voters as the army camp was as yet uncompleted and Article 119 of the Federal Constitution stated that they must be residents of the area.

"How can they be voters when the camp is incomplete," pointed out Ng.

Following this, Justice Kamaludin Md Said fixed this Thursday for a decision on whether to grant leave.

Earlier Ng, co-counsel Joanne Chua and senior federal counsel Muzila Arshad met Justice Kamaludin in chambers where Muzila informed the judge of the EC's preliminary objection to the judicial review application.

The 48 voters - mainly from Parti Amanah Negara and DAP - had filed the challenge last year and were granted leave by High Court judge Justice Azizah Nawawi last January.

This resulted in the EC and Attorney-General's Chambers appeal on Feb 21. -Mkini