Port Klang seat vacant, insists Teng
By Boo Su-Lyn, The Malaysian Insider
SHAH ALAM, Feb 18 — Selangor Speaker Datuk Teng Chang Khim refused to recognise the High Court’s ruling today and insisted that Badrul Hisham Abdullah is not the Port Klang assemblyman despite the High Court here ruling otherwise.
Teng claimed that the High Court had denied him the right to be heard, saying it had rejected his earlier application to postpone today’s hearing as his lawyer would be tied up in another case today.
“To me, it is not binding,” Teng told reporters today.
“I’ll still insist that my declaration still stands,” he added.
The High Court ruled that the Selangor Speaker had unlawfully declared the Umno man’s seat vacant.
Teng declared on January 19 that Badrul Hisham was no longer a member of the state assembly for being absent from its proceedings without valid reason for six months from July 16 last year.
Badrul Hisham’s lawyer, Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, today argued that Teng had erred when calculating the six-month period of absence from July as there was no state assembly sitting then.
Firoz Hussein said Teng should have begun calculating from the November 8 sitting, which was the first sitting Badrul Hisham was absent from.
