DEWAN Rakyat Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof ordered C. Sivarraajh out of the Parliament hall today after the Election Court declared the Cameron Highlands seat vacant last week.

The MIC vice-president was told he had to stay out pending clarification on whether the Election Court had issued a stay order on its declaration that the Cameron Highlands seat would remain vacant until the appeal process was concluded.

“So, in the meantime, please leave the assembly. Get a lawyer’s opinion, and send it to the speaker’s office,” said Ariff.

The speaker said he wanted to clear the air over the seat’s status and did not want to set an unclear precedent on how to deal with such issues in the future. 

In the lobby, Sivarraajh said he could still attend sittings as long as the High Court had not given Ariff a judicial notice on the seat’s status. 

He said he had checked with a professional on the matter and felt that R.S.N. Rayer (Pakatan Harapan-Jeutong) had raised the status of his seat in the chamber to embarrass him. 

“I have checked with a professional, and as long as the High Court does not send the judicial notice to the speaker informing that the Cameron Highlands seat has been vacated, I am still an MP. I can still attend the sitting. 

“I think what Rayer did was to just embarrass me, to show his power. But that’s okay,” he told reporters. 

The court declared the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat vacant last Friday after the court found sitting Sivarraajh guilty of bribing Orang Asli voters in the run-up to the May 9 general election.

Justice Azizah Nawawi said that a “pattern of giving money to voters during the period before the election” and corrupt practices had been proven.

The graft allegedly took place during meetings on April 28, May 3, 6, 7, 8 and 9 this year, as claimed by the petitioner, M. Manogaran, the DAP candidate for Cameron Highlands. 

In GE14, Sivarraajh won the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat by garnering 10,307 votes, defeating four other candidates.

He had said he would be appeal the decision. – December 5, 2018.