Legal Action To Disqualify Anwar As Mp Time Barred Says Rayer

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The Jelutong MP says any election petition must be filed within 21 days of the date that the poll results are gazetted.
Jelutong MP RSN Rayer said P Waytha Moorthy should have obtained the documents pertaining to Anwar Ibrahim’s royal pardon before filing the suit.PETALING JAYA: DAP MP RSN Rayer today said that the suit by lawyer P Waytha Moorthy seeking a declaration that Anwar Ibrahim should not have been elected as the Tambun MP and appointed prime minister was statute-barred
Rayer, himself a practising lawyer, said any legal challenge to an elected representative by way of an election petition under the Election Offences Act 1954 must be filed within 21 days of the date the election results are gazetted.
“Accordingly, Waytha’s legal action to disqualify the prime minister as the duly elected MP for Tambun is time-barred,” he said in a statement.
The Jelutong MP also said that Waytha should have obtained the documents pertaining to Anwar’s royal pardon before filing the suit.
“It is wrong to file a suit and then ask the prime minister to supply the documents related to his royal pardon,” he said.
Waytha, the Malaysian Advancement Party president, had issued a direct challenge to Anwar, demanding that he release the full documents of his royal pardon petition within 24 hours.
He filed the suit seeking to disqualify Anwar on grounds that the royal pardon granted to the PKR president in 2018 did not state that he was exempt from the five-year disqualification period for contesting an election after being released from prison.
Waytha, who served as a minister in Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Cabinet from 2018 to 2020, wants the High Court to declare Anwar’s election as Tambun MP on Nov 19, 2022 and his appointment as prime minister five days later null and void.
PKR’s R Sivarasa had dismissed Waytha’s argument as baseless, saying it showed an inability to appreciate the proper meaning of Article 48 of the Federal Constitution, which outlines the conditions under which an MP can be disqualified.
He said it was a public fact that in 2018, Anwar received a full and free pardon from the king at the time, who was of the view that the conviction was a miscarriage of justice.
He said the inclusion of the words “and who has not received a free pardon” in Article 48 made clear that in receiving a free pardon, the issue of a prior conviction as a disqualifying factor did not arise.
Sivarasa also said that Waytha should ask why Anwar’s opponents for the Tambun seat had not raised the issue during the campaign.
Nor was the issue raised when Anwar was appointed as prime minister on Nov 25, 2022. - FMT

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