KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 — Election Commission chairman Azhar Azizan @ Harun said the announcement on the Rantau by-election will be made only after the appeal against the Election Court’s decision is decided.

Azhar pointed out that the Federal Court has yet to rule on Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan’s challenge against the decision stripping him of the Rantau state seat in Negri Sembilan.

"We cannot announce it yet as there is an appeal, so we have to wait for it to complete.

"The Federal Court has six months to decide on the people but I think they would decide on it earlier,” he told reporters when met at the Roundtable on Electoral Reform: The Way Forward for Free and Fair Elections in Parliament, here, today.

Yesterday, Mohamad said he was appealing the decision both to clear his name of any alleged misconduct during nominations for the seat and to spare the constituency’s voters from having to go through a by-election.

On November 16, the Election Court allowed a petition filed by Dr S. Streram of PKR and annulled Mohamad’s uncontested victory in the general election.

The PKR candidate claimed that he was wrongfully barred from entering the nomination centre to file his nomination on April 28 purportedly because he did not have a pass from the EC.

The court ruled that no such pass was required and that Streram should not have been prevented from submitting his nomination documents, which had allowed Mohamad to retain the seat unchallenged.

Mohamad filed his appeal through Abu Bakar Isa Ramat of Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak & Co a day after the EC and Amino Agus Suyub, the returning officer for the Rembau parliamentary constituency, filed their appeal.