The Kuala Lumpur High Court today reserved judgment in an application by 22 Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees for a judicial review of the Election Commission's (EC) rejection of their right to vote in the last general election.

According to Bernama , Justice Mohamed Raus Sharif deferred judgement to a date to be fixed after hearing submissions from the detainees' counsel, Edmund Bon, and senior federal counsel Azizah Nawawi, representing the EC.

Azizah, in her submission, asked the court to reject the detainees' application because they had failed to show that the EC had made a decision and action refusing, denying and neglecting to allow them to vote in the general election.

She said the EC did not violate the detainees' rights under Article 119 of the Federal Constitution which states that the ISA detainees, being registered voters, are entitled to vote for the particular constituency and at the particular polling station where their names have been registered as electors.

This was because none of the detainees was registered in Kamunting but at different constituencies in the country, she added.

She also argued that the EC did not have the power to gazette the Kamunting detention centre as a polling station for the parliamentary seat of Ampang and state seat of Lembah Jaya, just to enable Yazid Sufaat, one of the detainees who is from the area, to vote.

Not qualified

On the issue of whether the detainees could get out of the detention centre to vote in their respective constituencies, Azizah said it was beyond the powers and jurisdiction of the EC.

She also said that the detainees are not qualified to be postal voters and that they had never made any formal application to be registered as postal voters.

In his re-submission, Bon argued that the EC's action was discriminatory and had violated the rights of the detainees to vote.

The 22 detainees are Yazid Sufaat, Nik Adli Nik Abdul Aziz, Ahmad Yani Ismail, Zainon Ismail, Abdul Samad Shukri Mohamad, Abu Bakar Che Doi, Mat Sah Mohamed Satray, Mohamed Lotfi Ariffin, Idris Salim, Muhamad Zulkepli Mohamed Isa, Mohamed Sha Sarijan, Solehan Abdul Ghafar, Abdul Murad Sudin, Mohamed Rafi Udin, Nordin Ahmad, Asfawani Abdullah alias Abdul Wahab, Roshelmy Mohamed Sharif, Alias Ngah, Suhaimi Mokhtar, Muhamad Zulkifli Mohamad Zakaria, Mat Salleh Said and Khairuddin Saad.

They are seeking a declaration that their fundamental and basic human rights under Article 119 of the Federal Constitution to vote in the general election had been denied and violated by the EC.

All of them, detained under the ISA for alleged involvement in the Jemaah Islamiah and Kumpulan Militan Malaysia (KMM), are also seeking a declaration that their fundamental and basic human rights for equal protection under the law had been denied and violated by the EC.

They are also seeking an order of certiorari to quash the decision and action of the EC which had failed, refused, denied and neglected to enable and allow them to go to the polls on last March 21.

They are seeking punitive, aggravated and exemplary damages and interest.