DAP's Ting disqualified as Pujut assemblyperson

DAP's Dr Ting Tion Choon has been disqualified as the Pujut assemblyperson.

This is after the Federal Court held that the Sarawak state assembly had not erred in its decision to disqualify him as an assemblyperson.

The Sarawak state assembly had on May 12, 2017, disqualified Ting (photo) based on the fact that he has had dual citizenship even though he later renounced his Australian citizenship just before the 2016 Sarawak election.

Ting had acquired Australian citizenship in 2010.

The House had argued that this violated Article 17(1)(g) of the state constitution which states that a person is disqualified if he had voluntarily obtained or exercised the right of citizenship in any other country.

There will be no by-election as it has been more than three years since the last state election.

The High Court on June 17, 2018, had ruled that the Sarawak state assembly's move to disqualify Ting was unlawful as it had acted outside its constitutional limits.

The decision was upheld in a two to one majority decision by the Court of Appeal on July 13, 2018.

Sarawak state assembly speaker Amar Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar and the Sarawak state assembly had appealed against the decision.

A nine-member bench of the Federal Court today voted seven to two in favour of overturning the decisions of the Kuching High Court and Court of Appeal.

Having a nine-member panel is a relatively new practice which began in 2018 under the new government to hear important cases. - Mkini