THE Kota Kinabalu High Court will decide on Friday if the application to overturn the dissolution of the Sabah state assembly stands.

Judicial commissioner Leonard David Shim made this decision after hearing submissions from the application by 33 assemblypersons who are challenging the dissolution made on July 30.

The 33 reps had filed for judicial review of the decision by Yang di-Pertua Negeri Juhar Mahiruddin to dissolve the assembly on July 30. 

Juhar had consented to a request from Sabah caretaker chief minister Mohd Shafie Apdal on July 29 to dissolve the assembly and call for fresh elections for the state’s 73 seats. 

Shafie had asked for the dissolution after claiming that since the downfall of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government in late February, there have been repeated attempts to buy support of lawmakers who are aligned to his Warisan government.

Warisan is allied to PH that was brought down by MPs defecting to form the Perikatan Nasional coalition.

In this today’s proceedings, Sim postponed the date of the decision following a request from Tengku Fuad Ahmad, who is representing the 33 applicants.

Fuad asked for more time to file a reply to a new argument made by Sabah attorney-general Brendan Soh who are representing the respondents, including Juhar and Shafie. 

Soh in his submission today raised another point of whether the 33 lawmakers have locus standi to question the governor’s power to dissolve the assembly.

Sim then allowed the applicants to file their replies by August 19 and ruled that the court will deliver its decision on August 21.   

The Election Commission is expected to announce today the dates for the Sabah polls that must be called within 60 days of the assembly’s dissolution. – August 17, 2020.