Nurul Izzah Anwar Thursday failed in her court bid to force a judicial review into the electoral roll in her Lembah Pantai constituency, meaning she will have to win the seat without any outside help at GE13.
She had taken the court action because she said the EC has failed to eliminate 4,637 doubtful names in her seat.
But Judge Datuk Seri Zakaria Sam ruled against her in chambers following submissions from Nurul Izzah’s counsel, Edmund Bon, and senior federal counsel Amarjeet Singh, representing the EC.
Outside court Amarjeet said the judge held that the court had no jurisdiction to review, quash or set aside electoral roll once it had been gazetted under Section 94A of Elections Act 1958.
The electoral roll across the nation was reviewed last year as part of the voting reform process ordered by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in 2011. All registered electors thought to be doubtful were contacted by post and asked to prove their bona fides. As a result of this painstaking process, 42,000 names were wiped form the electoral roll. It was just one of 27 voting reforms that have been instituted in the past 18 months.
Nurul Izzah, who famously unseated Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil at GE12, faces a battle to be re-elected due to a string of outbursts that have helped make her unpopular with the rakyat. In the wake of the Lahad Datu incursion, in which eight police officers lost their lives, she unwisely branded police “Umno spies”, before being forced into a humiliating climbdown.
At the end of last year she alienated Pakatan’s Muslim voters by declaring Malay Muslims free to choose their own faith, sparking a damaging rift within Pakatan Rakyat.
Nurul Izzah isn’t the only one to try to use the High Court to intervene ahead of the election. DAP Klang MP Charles Santiago has also failed in a court challenge against the EC.