This follows two suits, one by voters in Melaka and the other by the Selangor government, previously filed against the EC.
The four applicants for the judicial review, namely Thomas Fann, Ng Siam Luang, Ang Yien Meei, and Choo Mun Ying are seeking for a court declaration that the EC’s second notice published under Section 7 of the Thirteenth Schedule under the Federal Constitution on March 8, had contravened Article 113(6) of the Federal Constitution.
Fann is a voter under the Pulai parliamentary constituency while the other three are voters in the Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency.
“The second notice is invalid because EC did not give its attention to maintaining local ties as under Section 2(d),” they said in their judicial review filing.
The judicial review, filed on Tuesday at the Johor Bahru High Court registry, named the EC, its chairman Hashim Abdullah and secretary Abdul Ghani Salleh as respondents.
The voters want the court to quash the EC’s proposed recommendations made under the second notice.
The four are also seeking a stay of the redelineation exercises in the state, pending the disposal of the suit.
In a media statement, the four claimed that their objections filed during the first display of notice, were not taken into consideration.
“The electoral boundaries for Johor remains deeply flawed, unfair and we believe they have violated the law,” they said.
When contacted, the lawyer for the four applicants, Jimmy Pua, said that the Johor Bahru High Court had fixed July 3 to hear their bid for leave from the court to commence the legal challenge against EC.
This is the third legal challenge filed against the EC over the redelineation exercise. In October last year, the Selangor state government challenged the EC for the proposed redelineation exercise in the state.
The state government wants to nullify the notice of proposed redelineation exercise, claiming that it violates Article 113(2) and Sections 2(c), 2(d) of the Thirteenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.
The Selangor government wants a court order to quash the proposed notice and an order to direct the Commission to publish a fresh notice of the proposed exercise.
The state obtained a stay order by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Nov 28.
As a result, the second notice published by the EC on March 8, had excluded Selangor. Some quarters had said this was illegal under the Federal Constitution, since no state could be left out of the second notice if a prior proposal for redelineation had been made for that state.
In Melaka, seven voters from the Kota Melaka and Bukit Katil constituencies have also filed a judicial review against EC on April 4.
The Melaka High Court granted leave to the voters on May 3 and gave a stay order to the electoral body on conducting local enquiries pending the disposal of the suit.