Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Datuk Yong Teck Lee said this showed that the court agreed with them that under Section 9 of the 13th Schedule of the Federal Constitution, the Prime Minister had no discretionary power of not tabling the report in Parliament.
“The court had also agreed with our other contention that under the Constitution, the Prime Minister was required to table the report at the next available Parliament sitting after receiving the report,” he said.
Yong said after High Court justice High Court judge Justice Azhahari Kamal Ramli dismissed their originating summons seeking a court order to compel the Prime Minister to table the EC report in Parliament.
Yong was among a group of seven GS leaders who filed the summons on April 2 in which the Prime Minister and the EC were respectively named as first and second respondents.
Counsel Yong Yit Jee, with co-counsel Benazir Japiril Bandaran who represented the seven plaintiffs at the hearing in Chambers on Monday said in his ruling, Justice Azhahari had dismissed their originating summons on the grounds that the group had no locus standi to take such action.
He said the judge had also dismissed an application by the group for an Order of Mandamus to get the Prime Minister to table the report in Parliament as it would be an academic exercise now that Parliament had been dissolved.
Yong said the ruling had left the group wondering just who had the legal standing to compel the Prime Minister to table the EC report in Parliament.
He said the group had sought the Order of Mandamus as the next Prime Minister was constitutionally bound to table the EC report at the first Parliamentary sitting after the upcoming general election in late May or early June.
Yong said GS would be pursuing the issue through the courts and legislature.
“For SAPP, we only need one representative in Parliament to raise this matter in Parliament, to protect the sanctity of our Constitution, the honour of our State Legislature and the dignity of our Yang DiPertua Negeri and Sabah people,” he said.
When asked whether this meant he intended to contest the Kota Kinabalu Parliament seat, Yong said “I hope the people will let me bring this issue to Parliament.”
“We have been locked out from the gates of the court and we were allowed in after we stood up for our rights. Let us stand up and open the gates to Parliament,” he said to the cheers of GS leaders and members outside the Kota Kinabalu court.
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