MIC will seek a judicial review over the disqualification of C. Sivarraajh to contest in the Cameron Highlands by-election, said its president S. Vigneswaran.

Vigneswaran said his party felt the Election Commission’s decision was not in accordance with the law.

“We think the Election Commission’s decision is absurd and is wrong by law,” Vigneswaran said.

He however did not say when the party will file the review.

Yesterday, the Election Commission said in a statement that the MIC vice-president is ineligible to contest the Cameron Highlands by-election on January 26 as he is implicated in corrupt practices to win the parliamentary seat during the May general election.

EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun said the decision was made after referring to legal advisers on the former MP’s eligibility for the Cameron Highlands seat.

He said that Sivarraajh was also barred from registering as a voter or candidate for any election for a period of five years from December 13, 2018.

“The Election Commission will now take appropriate steps, as provided for under existing election acts and laws,” Azhar said in the statement.

Despite the uncertainty over the judicial review’s outcome, MIC is going ahead with preparations for the by-election.

“We are getting ready for the elections and there are many candidates who can contest. We have zoomed in on a few. However, we are not revealing the names as of yet,” Vigneswaran said.

He said MIC was confident of retaining the seat as it was confident Sivarraajh’s work would hold it in good stead.

“He said they will keep the campaigning low-key. We are not interested in big functions. Let’s see how well the (former) opposition, who is now in the government, will handle this,” he said

The by-election was called after the election court ruled on November 30 to annul the results of the seat in the May general election due to elements of graft.

Previously, they said that while they found voters were induced to vote for Sivarraajh, he was not guilty of bribing them and was qualified to be a candidate to contest again.

Sivarraajh previously insisted he did not provide monetary assistance to Orang Asli voters as inducement for their support.

The Cameron Highlands by-election will be held on January 26, with early voting set for January 22.

The constituency has 32,009 registered voters, comprising 31,750 ordinary voters, 247 early voters and 12 absentee voters. – December 29, 2018.