: The Election Commission’s (EC) report on the constituency redelineation will be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat today after the powerful speaker declared it not to be sub judice

EC redelineation report to be tabled in Parliament today


Wednesday, 28 Mar 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The Election Commission’s (EC) report on the constituency redelineation will be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat today despite claims by opposition lawmakers that it would be sub judice (under judicial consideration and thus prohibited from public discussion elsewhere) to do so.

Two law experts also said tabling the report could be sub judice due to the ongoing court cases, but it was also a grey area.

“This is one of those majestic areas where no clear law exists and the judge has a wide choice.

“Judicial wisdom and discretion will have to find the right answer,” Prof Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi said.


As such, he said, the respective bodies should continue to carry out their duties.

“Sub judice is applicable in certain cases. If sub judice is applicable in cases like this, that means the Dewan Rakyat can’t do anything,” he told reporters in Parliament yesterday.

He said the motion on the redelineation would be tabled in Parliament, adding that either the Prime Minister or any Cabinet minister could bring the motion in the House.

Recently, 107 notices of objections were filed by the people in Selangor, along with electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0, which filed a judicial review application to challenge the EC’s redelineation recommendations.

The Penang government also filed a motion at the Federal Court on March 16 for leave to appeal against the EC’s recommendations.

Yesterday, Klang DAP MP Charles Santiago requested an injunction at the Shah Alam High Court to stop Padikar Amin from allowing the tabling and debate of the report in Parliament today.

Santiago said that given the court cases were contested in two different courts, it would be sub judice for the Speaker to allow for a debate.

“It will be a travesty of justice if the courts rule that the EC was wrong in not holding an inquiry before submitting the report to the Prime Minister.

“Such a decision would make the redelineation report invalid and we would be debating an invalid report,” he said.

Santiago hoped the Court would grant him an order today.

Dr Shad said the situation was a grey area, adding that it was regarded as a constitutional dilemma and a “Gordian Knot” which the judge would have to unravel.

He explained that the existing practice is that if something is sub judice, then the matter is not commented upon in Parliament.

“But one must remember that the sub judice rule relating to parliamentary discussion is based on the Standing Orders of the House (Parliament), of which the House is the master,” he added.

He also cited the Datuk Tawfik Ismail case as a precedent, where the court declined to throw out his complaint relating to RU355 and instead asked both parties to make their submissions for judicial consideration.

“If the rule of sub judice should apply and the judicial process of appeals must be exhausted, then the matter could be delayed by years,” said Dr Shad.

Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen said the redelineation report should be withdrawn as there were genuine objections and legal challenges against the exercise.

“There are genuine objections of gerrymandering and malapportionment, that the redelineation was wrongfully done in violation of the Constitution,” he said.

Paulsen pointed out that Pandikar Amin applied the sub judice principle to stop any discussion in Parliament on the US Depart­ment of Justice’s legal action on alleged misappropriation of 1Malaysia Development Bhd funds.


Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/03/28/ec-redelineation-report-to-be-tabled-in-parliament-today/#tyFrxMizeCpQ9g93.99