Supreme Court Lawyer Files Appeal to Halt Presidential Election Schedule Hours Before Voting
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A Supreme Court lawyer has filed a petition with the Appellate Division seeking a stay on the schedule for the presidential election, just one day before the scheduled vote. The petition was submitted to the relevant branch of the Appellate Division on Wednesday.
The move follows a High Court ruling on Tuesday that summarily dismissed a writ petition filed by lawyer Yunus Ali Akond, which had challenged the legality of Article 70 of the Constitution—regarding the vacation of parliamentary seats for voting against one’s own party—and the presidential election schedule itself.
Speaking on the filing, Yunus Ali Akond confirmed that the appeal seeks to overturn the High Court’s decision and halt the electoral process. The application is expected to be heard in the chamber court of the Appellate Division.
The Election Commission had announced the schedule for the 23rd presidential election on August 6. According to that timeline, the voting is set to take place on Thursday, August 20. The stay application comes less than 24 hours before the polls are slated to open.
Article 70 of the Constitution stipulates that a member of parliament shall lose their seat if they resign from their political party or vote against the party in parliament. The petitioner had sought to challenge both the constitutional provision and the specific election schedule in his initial writ before the High Court.
This is not the first time the legal validity of Article 70 has been contested by the same lawyer. In a previous challenge, a High Court bench delivered a split verdict on January 15, 2018, with the senior judge issuing a rule while the other judge opted to dismiss the petition. The matter was subsequently referred to a third bench by the Chief Justice, which eventually dismissed the petition on March 18, 2018.
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