The voters’ lawyer Michelle Ng said they filed their court papers on Feb 26, five days after the Court of Appeal’s decision to deny them leave to challenge the Election Commission (EC).
The 48 voters are now seeking to quash the decision made by the EC, its Johor registrar Shafie Taib and adjudicating officer Miswan Yunus to include the army voters and spouses as Segamat voters.
Ng said Miswan heard the voters’ appeals from Jan 2 to 7 but the appeals were dismissed.
The 48 voters are seeking a court order to revoke the EC’s decision on gazetting the army personnel and spouses in the electoral roll.
They also want a court declaration that the EC’s decision to include the army voters was unconstitutional.
Besides that, the voters are trying to stop the EC from including the names of the army personnel and their spouses in the electoral roll, pending the disposal of their court case.
Last Wednesday, the Court of Appeal set aside the High Court’s order to allow the Segamat voters to question the EC’s decision to include the names of 949 army men and their spouses in the Segamat electoral roll.
The Court of Appeal said they had filed their leave applications prematurely.
On Jan 8, the voters were granted leave by Justice Azizah Nawawi to question the EC’s decision on the grounds that there were special circumstances.
Azizah also granted a stay against the EC putting the names of the army voters and their family members in the Segamat electoral roll pending disposal of the case.
The Segamat voters, led by Abdul Wahab Hassan, had previously sought to quash the names of 949 army men and their spouses as 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.
The voters claimed the entry of names on the Segamat electoral roll was illegal as it ran afoul 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 Dec 10 last year.
The registrar, however, dismissed their complaints after the inquiry, prompting them to file an appeal with the adjudicating officer.
DAP previously questioned the move to transfer the army men, asking if this was done to “save” the parliamentary seat from falling into the opposition’s hands in the coming 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-vote majority.
EC wins appeal to disallow inquiry into registration of army voters