Malaysia MP’s suit to stop GE15 now ‘academic’, High Court told

Mr Charles Santiago filed a lawsuit to challenge the legitimacy of the dissolution of Parliament on Oct 10. PHOTO: THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

KUALA LUMPUR – A lawyer told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that the lawsuit that challenged the legitimacy of the dissolution of Parliament on Oct 10 should be dismissed, as Malaysians are set to go to the polls in November.

The lawyer, former senior judge Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, is representing caretaker Primer Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, the Election Commission (EC) and the government of Malaysia as defendants.

The lawsuit was filed by three-term Klang MP Charles Santiago last week. The Democratic Action Party (DAP) MP wanted the EC to defer the elections, claiming that Datuk Seri Ismail’s request to the Malaysian King for Parliament’s dissolution was unconstitutional, as Mr Ismail did not have all of his Cabinet members’ consensus.

Mr Santiago also cited flood risks as a concern. His constituency, Klang, was one of the badly affected zones in December last year, when flash floods killed 54 and displaced more than 71,000 people in the country.

In response, Mr Ismail and the EC have sought to strike out Mr Santiago’s lawsuit, saying that it was frivolous and an abuse of the court’s processes.

“The originating summons filed by the plaintiff (Mr Santiago) should be dismissed by the court as it is now academic,” Tan Sri Zulkefli told the judge on Thursday.

Mr Zulkefli submitted that the prerogative to dissolve Parliament should be vested solely in the King.

“There is no doubt that the power to dissolve Parliament remains at the sole discretion of the King,” he said.

Citing case law, he said there was no distinction whether the dissolution was pursuant to a request or advice.

Mr Santiago’s lawyers will give their oral submissions in the afternoon. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

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