The Election Commission is maintaining its stand that those serving a jail sentence are disqualified as voters.

This despite PKR vice-president N Surendran arguing that the EC wrongly-interpreted the Federal Constitution article on voter disqualification.

“The EC’s stand has not changed,” EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof told Malaysiakini .

The EC told this portal on Sunday that a prisoner is not qualified to vote , according to Article 119(3)(a) of the constitution.

The article reads: “A person is disqualified for being an elector in any election to the house of representatives or the legislative assembly if on the qualifying date he is detained as a person of unsound mind or is serving a sentence of imprisonment.”

Surendran ( right ) argued yesterday that PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim is eligible to vote in the Permatang Pauh by-election on May 7.

‘Not if one is already registered as a voter’

The Padang Serai MP, a lawyer, said Article 119(3)(a) says one is disqualified if one is imprisoned at the time one applies to be a voter, but not if one is already a registered voter.

He said this is based on Article 119(4)(b), which defines the term “qualifying date”.

Based on this, Surendran said, Anwar must be allowed to vote since he is already a registered Permatang Pauh voter.

Article 119(4)(b) reads: “‘Qualifying date’ means the date on which a person

applies for registration as an elector in a constituency, or the date on which he applies for the change of his registration as an elector in a different constituency.”

The Permatang Pauh by-election was triggered when Anwar’s family failed to secure a royal pardon for Anwar, who is serving a five-year jail sentence for sodomy.

Anwar’s wife and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is contesting the seat against BN’s Suhaimi Sabudin, Parti Rakyat Malaysia’s Azman Shah Othman and Independent candidate Salleh Isahak.

Wan Azizah held the seat for two-and-a-half terms from 1999 to July 2008, when she resigned to make way for Anwar to contest after serving his disqualification period.

Anwar was banned from politics for five years after his release from prison in 2004. He served nearly six years in jail for sodomy and corruption but the sodomy conviction was subsequently overturned.