DAP's veteran leader Lim Kit Siang today accused the Election Commission of siding with the Barisan Nasional in deciding not to hold by-elections for the state seats of Changkat Jering and Behrang.

kuala terengganu by election dap dinner 140109 lim kit siang He said that the commission had also acted unconstitutionally in refusing to recognise the decision of Perak speaker V Sivakumar on the vacancy of the two seats.

"The Election Commission has even acted as a court of law - in a decision which is clearly influenced by the political interests and considerations of the Barisan Nasional," he said in a statement today.

The Ipoh Timur member of parliament was responding to the surprise decision by the EC this morning in ruling out by-elections for the two seats.

The commission ruled that while it had received an official note from Sivakumar stating that the representatives of the two said seats had tendered their resignations, it also at the same time received letters from the duo stating that they have not done so.

ec announces no by election will be held in perak 030209 spr chairman 02 "There exist doubts over the validity of the resignation letters submitted by the Perak state assembly speaker," said EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof.

"Therefore, we have decided that both the seats will remain (those of) the incumbents, who had won them (legally) in the last general election," he added.

The controversy over the status of Jamaluddin Mat Radzi (Behrang) and Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) started when they went missing from Jan 26 amidst strong speculation that they would be defecting to Barisan Nasional.

Review all options

Sivakumar then announced that he had received resignation letters from the duo on Feb 1 and declared the two seats vacant.

The next day he submitted an official letter to the Perak EC, informing it of the vacancies so that by-elections could be called within 60 days.

Both Jamaluddin Mat Radzi and Osman issued separate statements yesterday to state that they remained the elected assemblypersons for the two areas.

Lim also added that the EC's constitutional duty - as noted by the former EC chief Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman in several media reports today - was to act on the Perak speaker's official notification on the vacancy of the two state seats.

"It is no business of the Election Commission to act and usurp the jurisdiction of the courts to dispute the speaker's decision

"Any such legal challenge should come from Jamaluddin and Osman if they want to challenge the legality of their resignations from their respective state assembly seats," he added.

Lim said that with further odds against the Pakatan Rakyat government in Perak, all options to resolve the political crisis there will have to be considered.

48 hours to review decision

Meanwhile Perak DAP chief Ngeh Koo Ham also lashed out at the EC for acting beyond its constitutional powers.

ngeh koo ham "The validity of the resignation letters is none of their business. Their business is conducting elections," he told reporters after a press conference at the party's state headquarters in Ipoh.

He also echoed Lim's statement that the EC had no powers to probe the resignations letters.

"The law does not allow EC to inquire the validity of letters. They are bound to act on the speaker's notification," he said.

Ngeh also gave the EC 48 hours to review its "erroneous decision", failing which the Pakatan Rakyat will call for the resignation of the EC chief.

He also said that the EC had acted based on ‘hearsay' as the two politicians are still missing.

In a written statement distributed to journalists, Ngeh said the EC was compelled by Article 113 of the federal constitution to conduct the by-elections pursuant to Article 36(5) of the Perak constitution.

"Its refusal to do so would be a dereliction of its constitutional duties which is ultra vires. This shows clearly biasness," he said.

Article 113 of the federal constitution stipulated the role of EC in conducting elections while Article 36(5) of the state constitution stated that a member of the legislative assembly may resign his membership in writing, addressed to the speaker.

"It is not for the Election Commission to second-guess the decision of the speaker. The speaker is legally obliged to act on the (purported resignation) letters and not conduct any inquiry. Neither should the commission, if it values its independence," he added.