PETALING JAYA, 10 Apr: PKR Vice-President, Tian Chua, was announced to be defending his Batu Parliamentary seat in the 13th General Elections (GE-13) which will be held early next month.
The announcement was made via a press release issued by PKR President, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail today.
According to Dr Wan Azizah, PKR is of the opinion that Tian Chua is qualified to contest as a candidate despite being finer RM2,000 previously by the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
“In the judgement, he also discussed the question of whether Tian was disqualified as a Member of Parliament due to the fine.
“He decided that Tian Chua remains as a Member of Parliament and is not disqualified,” said Nurul Izzah when reading the statement at the press conference at the PKR headquarters.
According to Dr Wan Azizah, previously the Parliament knew fully of the facts of Tuan Chua’s case and failed to take steps to disqualify his Parliamentary membership.
In addition, the Election Commission (EC), which has full authority in terms of the law to decide on his eligibility as a Member of Parliament, also did not take an action against Tian Chua as a Member of Parliament.
“Therefore, it is clear that both the Parliament and the EC agreed with the judgement of Judge Ghazali or at least see not need to dissent in this case,” added Dr Wan Azizah.
During the GE-12 in 2008, Tian won the Batu Parliamentary seat when he secured 29,785 votes, beating his opponent, Lim Si Pin from BN with a majority of 9,455 votes.
In October 2009, the Magistrate’s Court found Tian Chua guilty of wounding a policeman in a protest near the Parliament Building in 2007, causing him to e sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of RM3,000.
In June 2010, High Court Judge, Datuk Ghazali Cha who dismissed Tian Chua’s appeal on the conviction, lightened his sentence to two months in prison and a fine of RM2,000, to avoid a bye-election.
Speaker for the House of Representatives, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia in his statement also announced that Tian Chua will be remaining as the Batu Member of Parliament.
Pandikar said that the High Court is of the opinion that Tian Chua’s position will not automatically be forfeited because of the RM2,000 fine, which does not disqualify him as a Member of Parliament.