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2017 MarsdenLR 3553
COURT OF APPEAL PUTRAJAYA
SURUHANJAYA PILIHAN RAYA & ORS – Appellant
Versus
KERAJAAN NEGERI SELANGOR & ANOTHER APPEAL – Respondent
[Civil Appeal Nos: W-01(IM)-135-04-2017 & W-01(IM)-136-04-2017]
The absence of voter addresses does not invalidate the delimitation exercise conducted by the Election Commission.
Headnote:The court allowed the Election Commission's appeal and dismissed the Selangor Government's appeal regarding the 2016 delimitation exercise. The Selangor Government challenged the validity of the electoral roll used, stating it omitted addresses for 136,272 voters. The court found that the missing addresses did not engender substantial inaccuracies affecting the legality of the delimitation exercise (para 99). The core issue centered on whether the locality code of the voters was necessary for judicial review. The court determined that the absence of the locality codes and the admission of flawed electoral rolls did not invalidate the exercise (para 76). The final outcome was upheld based on these findings.
| Table of Content |
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| 1. two appeals were filed involving issues of electoral delimitation. (Para 1 , 2 , 3 , 4) |
| 2. the selangor government's concerns regarding electoral roll precision were assessed. (Para 5) |
[1] There were two appeals before us involving the same parties. The first appeal was by the Election Commission (1st appellant) and its Chairman (2nd appellant) and Secretary (3rd appellant) against the following order made by the High Court:
"Responden-Responden akan dalam masa 14 hari selepas penyampaian servis kepadanya Perintah ini untuk menzahirkan kod dan nama lokaliti dalam format "data base format of Microsoft Access" untuk 136,272 pengundi-pengundi yang dirujuk dalam perenggan 58 dan Ekshibit MAA- 12 Afidavit Sokongan Pemohon yang diikrarkan oleh Mohamed Azmin Ali pada 18 Oktober 2016 (dibaca bersama Appendix 1 yang disimpan dalam cakera padat yang diberikan kepada parti-parti pada 16 Disember 2016) buat 2 latihan kajian semula persempadanan untuk Negeri-Negeri Tanah Melayu yang lepas iaitu 2003 dan 1994."
[2] It was an order to furnish the locality code and locality name of the 136,272 voters for the State of Selangor which the Election Commission used during the 2003 and 1994 delimitation exercises.
[3] The second appeal was by the Government of the State of Selangor against the decision of the same Court dismissing its application to cross-examine the Chairman of the Election Commission.
[4] For convenience, we shall refer to the appellants in the first appeal collectively as "the Election Commission" and the appellant in the second appeal as "the Selangor Government".
[5] Having heard arguments by both sides, both written and oral, we unanimously allowed the Election Commission's appeal and dismissed the Selangor Government's appeal. We set aside the decision of the High Court allowing discovery of the locality code and locality name of the 136,272 voters and affirmed the decision to disallow cross-examination of the Election Commission Chairman. No order for costs was made in respect of both appeals. We now provide the grounds for our decision.
