Seven months after the 13th general election, two PAS candidates in Perak have mounted a legal challenge to disqualify two Barisan Nasional (BN) assemblymen on grounds of not being a resident of the state when they contested in the May 5 polls.
The suits were filed in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur in July and the matter has been fixed for hearing on February 24.
Robin Lim, a lawyer in the legal team for the case, said the action was filed as the BN assemblymen for Manong (Mohamed Kamil Shafie) and Rungkup (Datuk Shahrul Zaman Yahya) had breached Article 30 of the Perak Constitution.
It said that a state assemblyman must be a resident of Perak at the time of his election.
“The two were residing in the Klang Valley and as such their election to the assembly is unconstitutional,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
The suits were filed by Jamil Dzulkarnain, who lost to Mohamed Kamil, while Mohd Misbahul Munir Masduki filed against Shahrul Zaman.
Mohamed Kamil won by 231 votes while Shahrul Zaman won by 613 votes.
In their court papers, Jamil and Misbahul Munir, the plaintiffs, said the BN assemblymen lived outside the state and the address in their identity cards proved they were non-Perak residents.
The plaintiffs want the court to declare that the BN representatives are disqualified to be members of the state assembly.
They also want the court order to restrain the assemblymen from participating in assembly proceedings.
However, the assemblymen in their defence said disqualification of elected representatives must be done through election petitions.
But Jamil and Misbahul Munir have shot back and said they were not challenging the election results but their qualification.
In GE13, BN retained Perak after winning 31 seats while Pakatan only secured 28 seats. DAP had won 18 seats, Pas (4) and PKR (6).
PAS then filed petitions to challenge the election results for the state seats of Pasir Panjang, Manong, Selama, Lubuk Merbau, Rungkup and Manjoi.
With the exception of Lubuk Merbau, the others were dismissed on technical grounds.
The Federal Court on Monday ordered the election judge to rehear the Lubuk Merbau complaint.
The Malaysian Insider also understands that a similar application to disqualify the BN assemblyman for Manjoi for not being a resident in Perak would be filed.
Mohamad Ziad Mohamed Zainal Abidin had won the seat after defeating Asmuni Awi by 132 votes – MI
