PUTRAJAYA, Dec 18 — The Court of Appeal today set aside a lower court’s order to stay the Election Commission’s (EC) redelineation process, allowing it to continue conducting local enquiries in Selangor.
In a majority decision, a three-member bench at the appellate court led by Tan Sri Idrus Harun said that there were merits in the EC’s application to set aside the stay order which was previously issued by the High Court, following a judicial review challenge by the Selangor state government against the redelineation process.
The High Court had earlier granted a stay to the state government, pending the latter exhausting its appeal after losing its judicial review bid to have the EC’s redelineation declared unconstitutional.
The state government had repeatedly expressed its concern that the appeal would be rendered “academic” if the EC was allowed to push through with the redelineation in the interim period.
Selangor state executive councillor Elizabeth Wong said that the state will proceed with the appeal against the High Court decision regarding their judicial review despite their failure to obtain a stay order.
“We don’t want the results of our appeal to become academic. But nevertheless we will continue with our appeal,” she said.
Senior federal counsel Datuk Amarjeet Singh, representing the EC, had argued that the stay order would prevent the EC from doing its constitutional function.
The EC started its redelineation process in September 2016 and must complete the process by September 2018.
The next federal polls needs to be held by August 2018 at the very latest.
