Bersih is against global settlement, says election judges are to blame
V. Anbalagan, TMI
Any out-of-court settlement between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat to withdraw election petition appeals will set a bad precedent, polls reform group Bersih 2.0 warned today.
Its co-chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan (pic) said election courts would continue to dismiss election petitions on technical grounds.
She said the courts would also impose exhorbitant costs when petitoners or respondents lost their cases.
“We are concerned because there will be no access to legal channels in future to obtain a remedy,” she told The Malaysian Insider.
Her response came following reports that the BN and the opposition are discussing the possibility of a global settlement over 19 election petitions appeals pending before the Federal Court.
What this meant was that BN and PR would withdraw their suits which would also prevent the apex courts from making important legal pronouncements for future references.
Lawyers Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun and Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, appearing for the BN, informed the Federal Court on Wednesday on the possibility of reaching a global settlement.
Parties have been given until December 2 to inform the court on the outcome of their discussion.
Almost all 70 election petitions earlier were struck out by election courts with costs as high as RM150,000.
The appellants are now in the Federal Court to have their election petitions reinstated and sent back to the election court to decide on their merits by way of a full trial.