Three Independent Perak assemblymen keep their seats

The three independent Perak state assemblymen keep their post after the Federal Court ruled that the Election Commission is the rightful entity to declare vacancies in the state seat.
In a landmark decision, Court of Appeal President, Tan Sri Alauddin Mohd Sheriff, who headed a five-men bench, granted an application by the trio - Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang), Capt (Rtd) Mohd Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) and Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang) - to declare that they were the state assemblymen for the three constituencies.Alauddin said the bench was unanimous in its decision that the EC had the power to declare whether the seats were vacant and not the Perak State Assembly Speaker, V. Sivakumar.Alauddin held that the interpretation of Article 36 (5) of the Perak Constitution, read together with Section 12 (3) of the Election Act 1958, meant that the EC was the rightful entity to establish if there was a casual vacancy of a state legislative assembly seat in Perak.The other four judges who sat with him were Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Arifin Zakaria, Federal Court judges Datuk Nik Hashim Nik Ab Rahman and Datuk S. Augustine Paul and Appeals Court judge Datuk James Foong.
Yesterday, the court for the first time decided to hear and determine the constitutional issue over who had the power to declare vacancies for the seats.Sivakumar, who was present in court, however declined to give any comments when asked by the media on the decision.The three assemblymen had applied for their suit against Sivakumar to be referred to the apex court on the grounds that it involved constitutional issues.They had originally filed the suit against Sivakumar at the High Court Ipoh seeking a declaration that they were the valid elected representatives for the three constituencies although Sivakumar had announced that the seats were vacant.With today's decision, there is closure to the trio's suit against Sivakumar.In February, Jamaluddin and Mohd Osman left Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) to become independent assemblymen while Hee of the DAP did the same, and this led Sivakumar to declare the seats vacant on the premise that the trio had signed undated resignation letters after winning the seats in the general election held on March 8 last year.However, EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusuf later declared Jamaluddin and Mohd Osman were still assemblymen and no by-elections would be called for their seats (at this time, Hee had not left the DAP yet).