Speaking at a press conference today, PCS president Wilfred Bumburing said the application also wanted the court to order the Sabah assembly to convene an emergency session to repeal the enactment that was passed in 2016 to increase the number of state seats from 60 to 73.
The application named the chief minister, the state government, the assembly and the EC as the first, second, third and fourth defendants.
“If it is true Parliament is dissolved, then usually the state assembly will also be dissolved. However, if the state government does this, it will render the state election null and void.
“Our state constitution already specifies there are 73 state constituencies. So, the EC will go against the state constitution by having elections in only 60 seats.
“In such an eventuality, it will be historic because the state election itself would be unconstitutional. It is unprecedented,” he said.
Bumburing also dismissed suggestions that the EC has two years to conduct a review from August 2016, saying that the Federal Constitution, where this provision is found, only specified that the commission is given two years to complete its report.
Based on the Parliament Hansard, in a reply to Penampang MP Darell Leiking, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said said the report had already been submitted to the prime minister on Feb 21, 2017.
However, Bumburing said Najib failed to table the report despite being required to do so under Schedule 13 Article 9 of the Federal Constitution which states “the prime minister shall lay the report before Parliament as soon as it may be, after receiving the EC report”.
He also said the application is different from the one filed by the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) earlier this week, because SAPP’s intention was to compel the prime minister to table the report.
“But once Parliament is dissolved, there is no way Najib can do this any more and Sabah cannot hold its own state election without risking it being unconstitutional.
“The only way is to wait for the federal elections to be completed, convene an emergency meeting to table the EC report for the additional 13 new state seats and approve it. Only then can the Sabah state election be held.
“Another way is of course for the state assembly to hold an emergency meeting to repeal the amendment,” he said, referring to a proposal first mooted by Parti Warisan Sabah president Shafie Apdal on Tuesday.
The second option of holding an emergency meeting, he said, is preferred since the current Dewan Rakyat sitting ended today.
He said Sabah, on the other hand, has more than enough time to call for a meeting.
“Of course, the Sabah BN will not be too happy about it because they surely anticipate the opposition to question them on the issue,” he said.
The current state government must call for a fresh election before the middle of May this year. It held its state elections simultaneously with the general election on May 5, 2013.
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