The voters’ lawyer Jamie Lee told reporters today, after case management at the High Court, that they had received a letter from the court on Jan 12 informing them that the EC had filed a notice of appeal on Jan 10.
The appeal was filed two days after Justice Azizah Nawawi allowed the 48 Johor voters leave to pursue their judicial review application to question the EC’s decision on the grounds that there were special circumstances.
Justice Azizah also granted a stay order against the EC from putting the names of the army voters and their family members on the Segamat electoral roll pending the disposal of the case.
The Segamat voters, led by Abdul Wahab Hassan, are seeking to quash the names of 949 army men and their spouses as new voters in a yet-to-be completed army camp.
They applied for a court order that the exercise to include the army voters was unconstitutional, as the army personnel and their families were not residing in the constituency.
In an affidavit in support of their application, the voters claimed the entry of names on the Segamat electoral roll was illegal as it ran foul of Article 119 of the Federal Constitution.
They said many irregularities were discovered during a public inquiry when the EC conducted an open hearing between Dec 4 and 10 last year. The registrar, however, dismissed their complaints after the inquiry.
DAP had previously questioned the move to transfer the army men there, asking whether this was done to “save” the parliamentary seat from falling into the opposition’s hands in the 14th general election.
In the 2013 general election, MIC president Dr S Subramaniam won the Segamat seat after defeating PKR’s Dr Chua Jui Meng with a 1,217 majority.
Voters go to court over addition of 949 soldiers, spouses, in Segamat seat