KUCHING: Sarawak Legislative Assembly Speaker Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar has filed an appeal against the reinstatement by the High Court of Dr Ting Tiong Choon as Pujut assemblyman.

Asfia’s lawyer Shankar Ram Asnani told The Star.“It is done. We have filed the appeal.”

Shankar was also quoted as saying it was wrong for the DAP to make comments on the matter, especially about the speaker and chief minister, now that it had gone to the appellate court.

Judge Douglas Christo Primus Sikayun, in his ruling last Saturday, said the state assembly was not a competent forum to decide on the membership of Dr Ting based on Article 118 of the Federal Constitution and that the speaker had wrongly applied Article 17(1)(g) of the Sarawak constitution.

Following the court’s decision, the Election Commission cancelled the Pujut by-election which was scheduled to be held on July 4.

Dr Ting was disqua­lified in a 70-10 vote in favour of a ministerial motion in the state assembly on May 12, for having once had Australian citizenship.

It was reported that Ting had acquired Australian citizenship on Jan 20, 2010, and renounced it on April 4, 2016, a month before the Sarawak election on May 8.

On June 7, Dr Ting filed an originating summons in the High Court here to challenge the state assembly’s decision to disqualify him as a member of the august House.