Sabah polls on: Court dismisses appeal by Musa, 32 other state reps

The Court of Appeal today dismissed the appeal brought by 33 assemblypersons against a High Court ruling over the Sabah Governor's decision in dissolving the Sabah legislative assembly on July 30.

Judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, who led a three-member bench comprising judges Abu Bakar Jais and Supang Lian, also rejected the assemblypersons’ bid for a stay of today’s ruling pending an application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court.

With this ruling, the state election will proceed as scheduled. The Election Commission (EC) has set Sept 12 for nomination and Sept 26 for polling.

The 33 assemblypersons, led by former Sabah chief minister Musa Aman, had appealed against the Kota Kinabalu High Court dismissal of their application for leave for a judicial review to challenge the decision of the Governor made on July 30.

The panel, in a unanimous decision, ruled that Sabah Governor Juhar Mahiruddin had correctly exercised his discretion within the provisions of the Sabah Constitution in dissolving the state legislative assembly.

Abdul Karim said the panel was of the view that no error was made by High Court Judicial Commissioner Leonard David Shim when he ruled that the case was non-justiciable (meaning it was not subject to trial in a court of law) and therefore not amenable for judicial review.

“With all the case law presented before us, the court is of the view that when it comes to the subject of dissolution of the state assembly, the court is of the position not to interfere with the decision to dissolve the assembly.

“We therefore dismiss the appeal by the 33 appellants and affirm the decision of the Judicial Commissioner,” said Abdul Karim.

In an immediate reaction, counsel Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, who represented the assemblypersons, made an oral request for a stay of today’s ruling pending an application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court.

Sabah Attorney-General Brenndon Keith Soh, representing Juhar, objected to the stay application, saying that at this juncture there was no appeal pending before the Federal Court and they would have to seek the stay when the leave application is filed.

Counsel Cyrus Das, who appeared for chief minister Mohd Shafie Apdal and the state government, also objected to the stay request, saying the election machinery had taken every step for the election where 30,000 personnel and 73 returning officers are involved.

He said that according to provisions in the Sabah Constitution, the election must be held within 60 days upon the dissolution of the state assembly.

“We have 72 hours for nomination in the state election… and I think there is too much of disturbance on the ground… and the particular people who want to contest should know where they stand,” Cyrus said.

Senior Federal Counsel Suzana Atan, who appeared for the EC, also opposed the stay application on the grounds that the election machinery was ready and the nomination was set for this Saturday.

Musa and several of the other assemblypersons were present in court.

The High Court, in dismissing the application of the 33 assemblypersons on Aug 17, had ruled that Mohd Shafie had acted within the parameters of the Sabah Constitution by requesting for Juhar to dissolve the state assembly and said the proclamation to dissolve the state assembly was constitutional and valid.

In their application for leave for the judicial review, Musa and the assemblypersons backing him had sought court orders to quash Mohd Shafie’s request to Juhar to dissolve the assembly, to quash the proclamation of the dissolution of the assembly, and to quash the Sabah state government gazette notification on the dissolution.

The 33 elected representatives claimed on July 29 that they made up the majority in the state assembly and wanted Juhar to swear in a new government that would oust the state government of Mohd Shafie.

Mohd Shafie, who is Semporna MP and incumbent assemblyperson for Senallang, pre-empted Musa’s move by advising Juhar to dissolve the state assembly, which had 65 members at that time, including five nominated assemblypersons.

- Bernama