KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has granted leave to MIC vice-president Datuk C. Sivarraajh (pix) to challenge the decision by the Election Commission (EC) which had barred him from contesting in the Jan 26 Cameron Highlands by-election.
His lawyer Vasanthi Arumugam said High Court judge Datuk Nordin Hassan has set Jan 10 for the application to be heard after meeting the lawyers in his chambers.
“The judge has fixed Thursday for the merits of the application to be heard,” she told reporters.
The Election Commission (EC) disqualified Sivarraajh from contesting the upcoming by-election after reviewing the Election Court’s Nov 30 judgment and the law governing elections and seeking legal advice.
DAP’s M. Manogaran filed a petition in June seeking a declaration that the GE14 results for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary election are null and void as Sivarraajh had violated the Election Offences Act 1954 by bribing voters among the Orang Asli community in the constituency.
He succeeded in his election petition to nullify the GE14 result that saw Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk C. Sivarrajh win.
He won with 10,307 votes while Manogaran polled 9,710, PAS’ Wan Mahadir Wan Mahmud polled 3,587, Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s B Suresh Kumar pulled 680, and Berjasa candidate Mohd Tahir Kassim drew 81 votes.
Pakatan Harapan has announced that Manogaran will be its candidate for the by-election.
