Selangor Menteri Besar Mohd Azmin Ali will be giving the Election Commission’s (EC) local enquiry a miss tomorrow when he is scheduled to present the state’s objections to the commission’s redelineation proposal.

Instead, his lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan will be at the Shah Alam High Court to seek an injunction against Azmin’s session at the local enquiry.

Lawyer Latheefa Koya, who is also on Azmin’s legal team together with Ambiga, said this is because the EC did not give adequate notice to Azmin, and he already has other state matters to attend to tomorrow.

“The menteri besar had written to the EC on Jan 2 to ask for two-weeks’ extension as it was a short notice, and that the 30 minutes allocated was certainly not enough for the state to present their case against the redelineation.

“The EC replied on the same day rejecting the request and told the menteri besar they will proceed. So the menteri besar wrote again to inform that he will challenge (this) in court. Hence the hearing is on Monday,” she told Malaysiakini when contacted.

The case management and hearing for the injunction are scheduled to take place at the Shah Alam High Court at 8am tomorrow, whereas Azmin was called to present his objections to the EC at 9am on the same day.

According to Free Malaysia Today, the Selangor government had filed a judicial review against the local enquiry on Jan 5, and also sought an injunction on the local enquiries pending the outcome of its application.

The report quoted Azmin’s affidavit saying that the state had less than a week’s notice, had merely 30 minutes to present his case, and must do so without legal representation.

He said this is a breach of natural justice and his constitutional rights.

It is understood that Azmin is seeking a three-hour session with the EC with legal representation, as well as two-weeks’ notice.

Previously, the state had filed another judicial review against the redelineation exercise. Unlike the recent application that targeted only the Azmin’s session at the local enquiry, the previous application challenged the entire redelineation process in Selangor.

It claimed that the EC’s redelineation proposal goes against the Federal Constitution.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court had dismissed the latter application on Dec 7 last year, but ordered an injunction against the redelineation in the state pending the outcome of the appeals process.

However, the injunction order was subsequently overturned by the Court of Appeal, paving the way for the EC to begin local enquiries in the state on Dec 28 while the case is still tied up in court.

According to Section 5, 13th Schedule of the Federal Constitution, groups of at least 100 voters each are eligible to file objections against the EC’s redelineation proposals, provided that their constituencies are slated to be altered in the proposal and the objections are filed within a 30-day display period.

Likewise, local governments and state governments whose jurisdictions include the affected constituencies are also eligible to file objections.

The EC is then required by the Federal Constitution to conduct local enquiries to hear these objections.

According to letters sent by the EC to various objectors, which was sighted by Malaysiakini, only 20 objectors are allowed to attend each local enquiry, which lasts 30 minutes.

One of the objectors would act as a spokesperson to present his group’s objections to the EC. Alternatively, if no one could attend the hearing, they may detail their objections in writing.

Clause 4(vi) of the proceeding’s code of conduct states that objectors are not to be represented by a lawyer, unless the lawyer is among the group of voters who had filed their objections.