Court Of Appeal Rules Against Selangor Govt's Bid To Challenge EC's Redelineation Exercise
A three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the courts have no jurisdiction.
By Sadho Ram — 29 Mar 2018, 02:32 PM
The Selangor government today lost its bid to challenge the Election Commission's re-delineation of electoral boundaries after the Court of Appeal dismissed its appeal for a judicial review
According to reports in The Malaysian Insight among others, while the justice Vernon Ong ruled that the Selangor government has locus standi (the right) to challenge the EC's re-delineation in court, the three-judge panel unanimously refused to rule in favour of the state government on the basis that the courts have no jurisdiction to make decisions on matters pertaining to the redelineation and the electoral roll.
The Star Online reports that the three-judge panel ruled that Selangor's claims of gerrymandering, unfair re-delineation and complaints of malapportionment, while right, are "non-justiciable"
Justice Ahmadi Asnawi, who led the bench with Ong and Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, ruled that although the Selangor government were right in questioning the redelineation process, the subject matter was non-justiciable that the courts could not decide on.
"Whether the proposed recommendation of the EC was subject to judicial review, we agree with the learned senior federal counsel that it is not amenable to judicial review.
"In view of our findings, we would dismiss the appeal," said Justice Ong, adding that the Selangor government may find proper avenues for the resolution at the local enquiries and in the Dewan Rakyat, reported The Malay Mail Online.
Meanwhile, the motion on the EC's redelineation of electoral boundaries was passed by the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, 28 March
it was tabled by Prime Minister Najib Razak, with 129 parliamentarians from the ruling BN coalition voting in favour and 80 from the opposition voting against it.
The EC's redelineation of electoral boundaries will become law once the king has given his royal assent and they are gazetted.
This infographic by The Malay Mail Online shows the entire timeline of the events after the Selangor government challenged the EC's redelineation exercise since September 2016:
