Kota Kinabalu:
A bid to stop the Sabah elections due to Covid-19 concerns was struck out on Monday (Sept 14). High Court judge Ismail Brahim dismissed the bid filed by lawyer Marcel Judge and businesswoman Margret Binsing against the Election Commission (EC), with costs of RM3,500. After hearing submissions by all parties, Ismail held that the case had no merit.
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Senior Federal Counsel (SFC) Narkunavathy Sundareson, who appeared together with SFC Suzana Atan, had, among other things, submitted that the applicants did not have an arguable case and that the court could not act contrary to the Sabah Constitution. In their application, Marcel and Binsing stated that Sabah was battling the threat of Covid-19, and this was not the time to have a state election.
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They said this was because the election would result in gatherings and crowds, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) including social distancing would be hard to observe. They also sought a certiorari order to quash and to set aside the EC decision announced on Aug 17 to hold the state election. They also said there could not be a fair and free election unless it was safe, and wanted the EC to provide evidence that they could comply with all directives of the Federal Government and the World Health Organisation for the election to be safely conducted.
