PETALING JAYA, July 29: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim urged the Chief Justice, Tun Arifin Zakaria, to intervene to ensure the integrity of the judiciary institution in this country is not ignored.
This follows the incident where a number of cases involving the 13th General Election (GE-13) petitions which were rejected with unreasonable excuse.
The PKR De Facto Leader said, among the reasons given was that the petition was not submitted by those involved and insufficient case facts.
“We all know in all cases, we do not file our own cases, but the lawyers. However in this case, I think that the excuse given is most ridiculous.
“Then it was highlighted that the facts were insufficient, using the facts in hand, whether sufficient or not, it gives space for the case to proceed,” he said in a press conference here at the PKR headquarters today.
Previously, the petitions filed by two Penang PKR candidates, Muhammad Baktiar Wan Chik (Balik Pulau Parliament) and Abdul Halim Hussain (Teluk Bahang constituency), were rejected by the Penang High Court.
Both were ordered to pay the costs, Abdul Halim RM10,000 and Muhammad Baktiar RM30,000 to their opponents, the election management officer and the Election Commission (EC).
Judge Hadariah Syed Ismail issued the order to both of them for failing to comply with provisions under the Election Petition Rules 1954.
Elaborating, Anwar said that the cost to be paid is also not reasonable and has never happened in the history of the judiciary body in the country.
“This has never happened in our history, usually in High Court cases, it is RM5,000, the highest being RM10,000.
“If it was at the Court of Appeal, it is RM15,000, the highest being RM20,000. So what is the purpose? The trick is to fail and prevent this process from proceeding,” said the Permatang Pauh Member of Parliament.
To date, 10 GE-13 petitions involving Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has been rejected by the high court.