The Kuching High Court granted PKR Sarawak PKR its leave application for a judicial review of the EC's redelineation exercise in the state. – Graphic courtesy of Bersih.PKR has been granted its leave application for a judicial review of the Election Commission's (EC) redelineation exercise in Sarawak.Kuching High Court judge Yew Jen Kie in her decision in chambers today also gave the EC two weeks to file its affidavit in opposition to the PKR's allegations and set March 19 for further mention.The February 2 application was filed by the opposition party's state assemblyman for Batu Lintang See Chee How, and a voter in Ulu Baram named Pauls Baya.See, who represented himself and Baya, said the three preliminary objections the EC and the state government raised to block the application were all thrown out by the court.Their objections were that See and Baya do not have the local standi to apply for the leave, that the application was premature and that the court has no jurisdiction to hear the review.“The court also felt the application was not frivolous," See later told reporters.See and Baya in their affidavit claimed the publication, or notification, of the EC to review the delineation was not in compliance with the provisions contained in the Thirteenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution and are seeking court orders to declare the exercise "null and void and of no effect".See had argued that the EC failed to publish the January 5 notice in a newspaper that is widely circulated in the constituencies affected.Shamsul Bolhassan, a senior federal counsel representing the attorney-general and Azizan Mohd Arshad, a senior federal counsel representing the EC, argued then that the EC “went above and beyond" what is required by the law by publishing the notice is the sister papers of the New Sarawak Tribune and Utusan Sarawak, the New Straits Times (NST), Utusan Malaysia and the Borneo Post, Sabah edition.See said the New Sarawak Tribune and its Malay language sister paper Utusan Sarawak have limited circulation in Sarawak, and he has “affidavit evidence filed" to show that these papers have no circulation in various rural centres whose voters are affected as required by the law.He said this was the same issue with national newspapers NST, Utusan Malaysia and the Sabah Borneo Post.See is seeking a mandatory court order to direct the EC to republish the notice of its proposed recommendations to review the division of the constituencies “in full compliance with the provisions contained in the Thirteenth Schedule".See had also argued the redelineation exercise was unconstitutional and is also null, void and of no effect as the EC had not had the power to make changes to parliamentary constituencies in the delineation exercise.He was referring to his constituency of Batu Lintang, which had been moved from the Stampin parliamentary constituency to the Kuching constituency under the exercise.He argued there has been no amendment to Article 46 of the Federal Constitution to change the composition of the Parliament, and the EC had acted in excess of its legal authority and power to review the division of Sarawak into federal constituencies.Various citizens’ groups in the country, including Bersih, Tindak Malaysia and the Rise of Sarawak Effort (ROSE) have all assisted PKR in their research to build their legal case for this application. – February 17, 2015,
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