EC: No by-election for Behrang, Changkat Jering

(The Star) – The Election Commission decided on Tuesday that that Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi and Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu were still the assemblymen for Behrang and Changkat Jering respectively.

Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof said here that the decision was made because both Jamaluddin and Mohd Osman had written a letter to Perak State Assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar claiming their resignations were not valid.

“Copies of the letters have been given to the EC,” he said.

On Monday, Sivakumar had handed over the disputed letters of resignation purportedly from the two men to the state election director Adli Abdullah to seek a by-election for the two constituencies.

Abdul Aziz had then said a meeting would be held to discuss the validity of the letters signed by Jamaluddin and Mohd Osman.

Describing the situation as “delicate and unique,” he had said a meeting with legal advisers and experts from the Attorney-General’s Chambers must be held before any decision was made.

Jamaluddin, 52, is the Perak Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Committee chairman while Mohd Osman, 57, heads the State Tourism and NGO Committee.

They were charged in a Sessions Court on Aug 25 last year with allegedly receiving bribes over the application for a RM180mil housing project in Sri Iskandar in Perak Tengah. Their case comes up for hearing on Feb 10.

Jamaluddin (a former postman turned politician/businessman) and Mohd Osman (a retired Army captain turned politician/businessman) have not been seen in public since Bota assemblyman Datuk Nasarudin Hashim crossed over to PKR on Jan 22.

Late on Monday, when asked about his earlier statement that he would quit PKR and become an independent, Jamaluddin, said: “Things are quite chaotic at the moment. It will settle down in a few days.”

Mohd Osman, through a representative, lodged a police report at the Shah Alam police headquarters on Monday to state he did not tender his resignation as a state assemblyman.