Recently, after the now famous election court's decision on the petition with regard to the Likas poll result, a number of prominent persons including the minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Rais Yatim, had spoken on the need for streamlining election laws with the rest of the laws in this country, that it be appealable. I find it very hard to agree that there is such a need.

Unless the need had arisen because the outcome of the petition had been adverse to the ruling coalition and that a by-election to follow would not be an easy meat to chew and its outcome could be further difficult to predict. And if such circumstances had been the main cause to the panic desire to change election laws, surely they are not strong enough nor realistic enough to warrant a change.

As elections by their very nature require urgent disposal, the framers of the present election laws had put such provisions as non-appealable to suit that purpose.

Imagine if a court decided that an election result had been bad in law and as a result ruled that the affected constituency be vacated then such decision is to be open for appeal. The appeal mechanism will take it for five or six years down the road to reach the Federal Court - to what purpose at all that such a petition be brought?