KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 — Putrajaya and the Election Commission (EC) have two weeks to file their affidavits in response to a lawsuit filed by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim after he was prevented from voting in the Permatang Pauh by-election.
According to Anwar’s lawyer, Latheefa Koya, Kuala Lumpur High Court deputy registrar Nor Hasniah Abdul Razak gave the order today and set June 8 for further case management.
“In the case management today, they (EC) were ordered to file their affidavit in response by June 8,” she told Malay Mail Online.
In the suit filed on May 6, Anwar named the EC, its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof and the federal government as respondents over the commission’s decision to prevent him from voting in the recent Permatang Pauh by-election.
The former federal opposition leader argued that he remains entitled to vote in elections, under Article 119 of the Federal Constitution (Qualifications of electors), despite his February 10 conviction for sodomy.
Anwar is also asking compensation as his constitutional rights were affected to the EC’s actions.
Anwar alleged that Aziz had issued a media statement on April 27 and April 29 that he (Anwar) was not eligible to vote in the recent Permatang Pauh by-election because he was in jail.
In his supporting affidavit, Anwar, 67, said he had filed a review application on April 30 at the Federal Court registry seeking to get a fresh panel of judges to review his conviction and five-year jail term for sodomy on grounds of injustice.
On February 10, the Federal Court upheld his conviction for sodomising former Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in 2008 as well as the five-year jail sentence meted out by the Court of Appeal.
The Permatang Pauh by-election held on May 7 was won by Anwar’s wife and PKR president, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
