He was responding to former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee, who yesterday said that any move for only 60 state seats to be contested in the upcoming polls would trigger a constitutional crisis as the state Constitution had already provided for 73 state seats to be contested.
The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president said it would also be wrong if the bill for the additional 13 seats was repealed.
Foo, who served as Sabah AG from 1986 to 1999, said the provision for increased state constituencies was one of two steps required before all 73 seats could be contested in the polls.
He then explained the process for the 13 seats to be considered valid to be contested.
“The state assembly had to pass a bill for the new seats before the Election Commission (EC) could carry out any redelineation of the existing electoral boundaries to provide for the additional constituencies.
“Once the EC had completed its redelineation exercise, it would submit a report to the prime minister.”
Foo added that it was then left to the prime minister to table the report in Parliament and that document would have to be passed by a majority vote in the Dewan Rakyat.
“Once passed, it would then require the Yang DiPertuan Agong’s order before the new constituencies were enforced and should be contested in the polls.”
According to Foo, the EC had two years from the date of the State Constitution Amendment Bill for additional seats was passed by the state assembly.
“As long as the EC report on the electoral boundary redelineation has not been approved, the number of state seats to be contested in Sabah remains at 60,” he told FMT.
The bill for the additional 13 seats was tabled and passed by the state assembly on Aug 9, 2016 and the Yang DiPertua Negeri gave his assent to it a week later.