The Federal Court has given until Dec 2 for BN and Pakatan Rakyat to try and resolve 19 election petition appeals to reach a possible "global settlement".

Among the election petitions include the Sungai Besar, Kuala Selangor, Sabak Bernam and Bagan Datoh parliamentary seats and the state seats of Selising, Selama and Manung.

BN lawyer Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin said that BN has appeals in four election petitions while there are more than 10 appeals with Pakatan petitions.

He said that the parties will need some time for a "global settlement" in the matter.

Another BN lawyer Hafarizam Harun said that BN is not interested in using the courts to change the government and we hope for an amicable solution to the 19 appeals.

Lawyers representing Pakatan indicated that they would need time to get instructions.

Court of Appeal president Md Raus Sharif leads a five member bench that includes Federal Court judges Abdull Hamid Embong, Ahmad Maarop, Hasan Lah and Abu Samah Nordin.

Justice Md Raus indicated that if there is no settlement, the court is likely to make a decision.

Withdrawing appeals

While the parties did not indicate how the settlement would take place, it is learned that it involves parties withdrawing their appeals before the court.

However, there is a snag in that Pakatan has been burdened by the high costs imposed by the court which has burdened the plaintiffs who filed the action.

Lawyer Hisham Fauzi, who represents PAS in some of the election petition cases in Kelantan, said outside court that the party has calculated that in terms of costs, the party would need to fork out close to RM2 million.

"There is a decision at the Terengganu election court where we have to pay RM150,000 costs. In the past, election petition cases, the costs would be between RM5000 and RM10,,000," he told reporters.

"I even submitted before a judge in one case that the court should not impose high amount of costs as this may lead people to go to the streets in protest of the election results, if the court cannot be accommodating in public interest cases," he said.

Hisham said the election petitions for PAS were struck out on three grounds, namely they do comply with Rule 9 and 34 of the Election Petition Rules 1954 on the appointment of solicitor, the petitioner is required to give the petition by hand to the respondents and the petitioner must file the application personally.

On a personal note, he said Pakatan wanted to challenge this as such provisions are unconstitutional.

"If the global settlement takes place, it must also include removing part of the high costs that Pakatan suffered," he added.