Former Bersih 2.0 steering committee member Haris Ibrahim has failed in his bid to compel the Election Commission (EC) to furnish details of the re-delineation exercise for all constituencies in its website.

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today decided that Haris's application, filed in January, was premature.

Justice Asmabi Mohamad has contrasted this case with the landmark decision in Sarawak where the re-delineation exercise ( photo ) has already started but has yet to officially begin in peninsular Malaysia.

"The court also dismisses the application as Haris, who also stated to represent aggrieved persons who were not named, do not have the locus standi (legal standing) to initiate this originating summons. The court do not know who are the aggrieved persons he menitoned.

"This application is dismissed with costs," she said.

The judge also ruled that the Federal Constitution stated that challenges can be mounted on 'a constituency' and not 'constituencies', as per the application in the originating summons.

Justice Asmabi ordered Haris to pay RM5,000 in costs.

The judge said in any application, there would be winners and losers, like in a football match, and if the parties felt that her judgement was wrong, they could take it up to the three-member Court of Appeal bench.

Haris, who is a voter in the Bukit Gasing state constituency and Petaling Jaya parliamentary seat, ‎wants the EC to furnish the details of all the constituencies for re-delineation in its website, just like in India.

He said when he wanted to check the details, he had to go into each constituency to study and make a protest within the limited period of 30 days.

At present, redelineation details are limited only to voters from the relevant constituency.

Haris, who also heads the Anything-But-Umno (ABU) NGO, told Malaysiakini that he will appeal today's decision.

The activist is represented by Sreekant Pillai and Pavinder Singh, while the EC is represented by senior federal counsel Mazlifah Ayob and Nik Azrin Zairin Nik Abdullah.

Access to information on poll boundaries

During submissions, Haris' lead counsel Malik Imtiaz Sarwar had said that each constituency should have equal number of voters as stipulated in the the Thirteenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.

“However, we do not find this if we compare the constituency of Puchong and, say, Putrajaya, which is next to it.

"This lack of information which is not made accessible to the public has created problems for people like Haris to file a protest,” he said on Mar 26.

Malik ( photo ) had said his client is not seeking an extension of the 30-day protest period but access to information of other constituencies to make sure there is no wide disparity.

In the landmark decision, the Kuching High Court judge nullified EC's re-delineation exercise in Sarawak and ordered the commission to republish the notice of its proposed new polling boundaries.

The AG filed an appeal against the decision on May 27.

Sarawak chief minister Adenan Satem would have to call state elections by the middle of the year.