PUTRAJAYA, Feb 18 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has until February 24 to exhaust all legal means to challenge his conviction for sodomy in order to keep his Permatang Pauh seat, the Election Commission (EC) said today.

EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof said that Anwar can either seek a judicial review against the federal court decision or seek for a royal pardon.

“If there is no appeal the EC will have a special meeting after that to discuss the matter,” Abdul Aziz told reporters here.

Anwar was sentenced to five years’ jail on February 10 after the country’s apex court upheld an earlier Court of Appeal ruling that reversed his acquittal of sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Save for the judicial review and royal pardon, which opposition lawmakers have said is tantamount to an admission of guilt, the verdict effectively ends the opposition leader’s other legal bids to challenge the conviction.

He now stands to lose his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat as the law bars anyone fined over RM2,000 or imprisoned more than one year from serving as a lawmaker.