Election petitions: Dec 12 deadline for settlement

(Bernama) – The Federal Court has given the Barisan Nasional (BN) and opposition parties until Dec 12 to reach settlement on the appeals in 19 election petitions.

Court of Appeal president Md Raus Sharif, chairing a three-member panel comprising also justices Ahmad Maarop and Abu Samah Nordin, said the court would hear the appeals on that day if the parties failed to reach settlement.

Earlier, counsel R Sivarasa, representing PKR, informed the court that there had been no settlement yet but the parties had made some progress in the matter.

“The parties also need more time to discuss the settlement,” he said.

BN’s counsel Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin said they were optimistic of a settlement.

The court had set today for case management for the parties to update the court on the outcome of a global settlement of the 19 election petitions nationwide.

The 19 appeals included those for the parliamentary constituencies of Machang, Ketereh, Batu, Lembah Pantai, Bagan Datoh, Sungai Besar, Kuala Selangor and Titiwangsa and the state constituencies of Selising, Selama and Manong.

All the election petitions were struck out by the Election Courts with costs on preliminary objection of non-compliance with Rule 9 and Rule 34 of the Election Petition Rules 1954.

The appellants are appealing to the Federal Court to have their election petitions reinstated and remitted back to the Election Court for determination on its merits, by way of a full trial.