Penang throws spanner into plans to table EC redelineation report

The Penang government filed a motion for leave to appeal against the Electoral Commission's (EC) redelineation recommendations before the Federal Court yesterday, with eight questions of law to be posed to the highest court in the country.

With this, the state government's lawyer Leong Cheok Keng said Parliament should not discuss questions regarding the EC's redelineation report as the matter would be sub judice (under judicial consideration).

"If the Parliament speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia had ruled questions regarding 1MDB as sub judice, the same rule applies here with the redelineation report," Leong, who is also Malim Nawar assemblyperson, told Malaysiakini.

The EC had submitted its report to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on March 9, despite the commission having yet to finish hearing appeals against its local inquiries.

The report is scheduled to be tabled next week, and Najib is said to be wanting to use its recommendations in the coming general election.

It was reported on Feb 21 that the Court of Appeal had dismissed the Penang government's appeal for it to be given leave for its judicial review application to be heard on its full merits.

Questions concerning AGC 

Two of the eight questions cited for leave to be posed before the apex court concern whether the judicial review application consented to by the Penang state legal advisor can be challenged by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), and whether the AGC can represent the EC.

As with other states, the Penang state legal advisor had been seconded to the state from the AGC.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng affirmed an affidavit yesterday in support of the application, in which he stated that the English Court of Appeal had permitted a judicial review of a redelineation by the United Kingdom EC before the report was presented to the UK Parliament for debate.

"Hence, there are serious issues of law to be decided by the Federal Court on whether it has jurisdiction to hear the judicial review before the report is handed to the prime minister for it to be debated in Parliament.

"Following, this the Penang government believes that it had passed the threshold under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 for the court to grant leave and decide on the questions of law posed," he said.

In the Federal Court, leave or permission has to be gained before the merits of the appeal are heard in civil cases.

The EC was supposed to complete the redelineation exercise by September this year before handing the report to the prime minister.

The Penang government filed the judicial review application last June on the grounds that the present redelineation is "sustaining and worsening” malapportionment of parliamentary and state assembly seats in view of the coming general election. -Mkini