KUALA LUMPUR (April 11): Former Ampang member of Parliament Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin has filed for a judicial review at the High Court against the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to seek a declaration that she is the rightful Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) president and that the ROS’s action in declaring Datuk Larry Soon @ Larry Sng Wei Shen as the party’s president was unlawful and unreasonable.

Zuraida, 66, filed the application on March 24, through the firm of Messrs Ashmeer Ashrof, wherein she named the ROS as the sole respondent. The hearing for leave (permission) to initiate judicial review is scheduled for Wednesday (April 12) before judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh.

In judicial review proceedings, leave (permission) has to be gained first before the full merits of the application is heard, to ensure the application is not frivolous, vexatious or an abuse of the court process.

In the application, Zuraida, who was formerly the plantation industries and commodities minister, also seeks a declaration that the failure of the ROS to allegedly recognise her as PBM president in the party’s Supreme Council meeting last Oct 7 was unreasonable. She is also seeking a mandamus order to compel ROS to recognise her as PBM’s rightful president effective that date (Oct 7 last year).

She also seeks for ROS to register her as the rightful party president, and seeks for damages along with costs of the application.

Zuraida claims the basis for the application is that PBM had legally appointed her as the party president last Oct 7, and that the ROS had received a letter from the party on Oct 27, informing the ROS of her appointment.

On Dec 27 last year, Zuraida was informed that PBM had sacked her from the president’s post and that the ROS had failed to recognise her as the party president on record, and in turn retained Soon as the party president.

She states that RoS’s failure to recognise the contents of the said Oct 27 letter had resulted in her being expelled from the party unconstitutionally.

Zuraida lost the Ampang seat at the 15th general election, wherein she was defeated by Rodziah Ismail in a nine-cornered contest, and lost her (Zuraida’s) deposit.

Earlier this week, Zuraida denied wanting to re-join Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia after she left PKR in 2020.