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Wong Souk Yee v AG (2) [2019] SGCA 25 The Legislature may by law provide for — (a) the vacating of a seat of a non-constituency Member in circumstances other than those specified in Article 46 … … 42 Article 49(2)(a) is worded as a special extension to the grounds provided in Art 46 for the vacating of a Member’s seat. This is apparent from the use of the words “in circumstances other than those specified in Article 46”. This fortifies the conclusion that Art 46 is intended to contain all the grounds for the vacating of parliamentary seats, save for express exceptions made in the Constitution. Other than Art 46 and Art 49(2)(a), no other provisions in the Constitution provide grounds for the vacating of parliamentary seats. 43 Hence, based solely on the words of Art 49, Art 46 and Art 39A, it is unclear whether Art 49(1) may apply to GRCs at all. It is phrased in terms that may be wide enough to include the interpretation that a by-election shall be called when a single seat in a GRC has been vacated. Yet, the Constitution is conspicuously silent and does not expressly compel the other Members of the affected GRC to vacate their seats in such a scenario, and this is a necessary precondition before any by-election in a GRC can be held. 44 One further point fortifies our view that Art 49(1) is ambiguous. Within Art 49(1) itself, the phrase “shall be filled by election” is immediately followed by the phrase “in the manner provided by or under any law relating to Parliamentary elections for the time being in force”. Hence, a question arises as to whether there is any law relating to parliamentary elections that is relevant to the specific situation presented in this case. In this regard, there is no such law. On the contrary, s 24(2A) of the PEA expressly prohibits the holding of a by- 17

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Wong Souk Yee v. Attorney General

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether the Prime Minister had a duty to fill the vacancy in a Group Representation Constituency.

Alleged Acts: On August 7, 2017, a member of Parliament resigned to stand for the presidential election and no by-election was called to fill the position. The Constitution imposes a duty on the Prime Minister to call a by-election to fill an vacancies of elected members. Each GRC must have at least one member of parliament.

Procedural history: The appellant filed suit seeking that the remaining members of the MYT GRC vacate their seats and a by-election be held or a declaration that art. 24(2A) void for inconsistency with the Constitution art. 49(1).

Summary: The court stated that the amended regulatory framework was considered as applied to the current framework and not as an independent and new framework. Thus, the court analyzed whether the construction of the statutes must be updated. The court determined that art. 49(1) referred to the seat of a particular member and not to the entirety of the political party. Ultimately ,the court of appeals did not provide a definitive opinion, but stated that even though there was not an existing constitutional avenue did not mean that there was no obligation.

Conclusion: The court dismissed the appeal and stated that the lack of an express provision for filling vacancies in the GRC did not meant that they could be vacant without the need to call a by-election. The court stated that Parliament could potentially close this gap through an amendment to the constitution.

Legal Issue(s)

Electoral Integrity
EMB Independence

Region: Asia-Pacific

Country: Singapore

Language of Decision

English

Court: Appellate Court

Election Type: Review of law

Date of decision: Apr 10, 2019

Geolocation

Latitude: 1.289765826

Longitude: 103.8511735

: Geolocation

Primary Documents

wong-souk-yee-v-attorney-general-2019-sgca-25-(100419)-pdf.pdf
English
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Election Judgments - IFES

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Wong Souk Yee v. Attorney General

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