Sivakumar’s EC suit now on March 31

By Clara Chooi - The Malaysian Insider

IPOH, March 20 — Ousted Perak Speaker V. Sivakumar’s year old suit against the Election Commission for failing to declare vacant the seats of three defecting Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will be heard at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on March 31.

Sivakumar said on Monday the court will also set the hearing date for his appeal on the Ipoh High Court’s decision to strike out his application for an injunction against Barisan Nasional-appointed Speaker Datuk R. Ganesan last September.

Both cases are still crucial to the Perak Pakatan Rakyat as they still refuse to accept Ganesan as their Speaker, despite the Federal Court’s decision on Feb 9 that declared BN’s Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir the rightful mentri besar.

“This is why we have been urging the courts to expedite this matter in order to avoid further confusion in view of the coming state assembly,” Sivakumar told a press conference here today.

The next Perak assembly has been set for March 30 and looks set to be just as farcical as the previous sittings as the opposition have announced their refusal to work with Ganesan.

Sivakumar however admitted that the previous decision taken by the Federal Court in a suit filed by the three PR defectors against him might be used as a binding precedent in his case against the EC.

The apex court ruled on April 9 last year that it was the EC, and not the Speaker, who had the right to declare the seats of Behrang, Changkat Jering and Jelapang vacant.

Sivakumar had declared the three seats vacant after receiving the undated resignation letters of assemblymen Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu and Hee Yit Foong.

The three had subsequently denied their resignations and declared themselves BN-friendly independents, triggering the start of the long drawn out constitutional crisis in Perak.