page_title: Vellama d/o Marie Muthu v. Attorney-General
section_title: Facts
hierarchical_section_title: Vellama d/o Marie Muthu v. Attorney-General / Facts
caption_attribution_description: English: Yaw Shin Leong during his rally speech at Serangoon Stadium as a candidate of the Workers' Party of Singapore during the Singaporean general election, 2011.
context_page_description: Vellama d/o Marie Muthu v. Attorney-General was a 2013 decision of the Court of Appeal of Singapore which held that Article 49 of the Constitution requires the Prime Minister to call a by-election when a casual vacancy arises in a Single Member Constituency, though the election need only be called within a reasonable time.
  The holding was an obiter dictum, that is, not required for the decision in the case and therefore not a binding precedent, though it may be persuasive in future cases. This was because the Court dismissed the appeal on the ground that the appellant, Madam Vellama, lacked standing. She had originally applied for judicial review in 2012 to ask the High Court to order the Prime Minister to call a by-election in Hougang Single Member Constituency following the expulsion of her Member of Parliament by his political party, the Workers' Party of Singapore. However, by the time the matter came on appeal, the 2012 by-election had been called and held. Therefore, she was arguably no longer directly affected by the lack of an MP in her constituency. Her only remaining interest was in having the Prime Minister correctly interpret Article 49 of the Constitution.
context_section_description: During a parliamentary debate on 27 August 2008, the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, asserted that since Singapore's system of elections focuses on political parties rather than on individual candidates, in the event of a parliamentary seat falling vacant in the middle of a term, the Prime Minister retains "full discretion as to when and whether to call a by-election as the vacancy does not affect the mandate of the government".
  Yaw Shin Leong, a member of the Workers' Party of Singapore, was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Hougang Single Member Constituency (SMC) at the 2011 general election. He was expelled from the party on 14 February 2012 for refusing to explain to the party leadership certain allegations of marital infidelity that had come to light. As a result, pursuant to Article 46(2)(b) of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, he lost his parliamentary seat which became vacant, leaving the residents of Hougang SMC unrepresented. This spurred the applicant, Madam Vellama d/o (daughter of) Marie Muthu, a voter resident in Hougang SMC, to commence judicial review proceedings in the High Court on 2 March 2012 to compel the Government to call a by-election. She sought a declaration as to the proper construction of Article 49(1) of the Constitution and a mandatory order requiring the Prime Minister to advise the President to issue a writ of election for Hougang SMC within three months from the date of the vacancy, or such other reasonable period as the Court deemed fit.
  A week after Vellama's application, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in Parliament that he intended to call a by-election in Hougang SMC but had yet to decide on its timing. On 2 April 2012, the High Court granted Vellama leave to apply for judicial review. On 9 May 2012, the President, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister, issued a writ of election for a by-election in Hougang SMC. The by-election was held on 26 May 2012, and Png Eng Huat of the Workers' Party was returned to the seat for the constituency.
  Vellama subsequently abandoned her application for the mandatory order but proceeded with her application for the declaration in the High Court. On 1 August 2012, the High Court dismissed her application. Dissatisfied, she appealed to the Court of Appeal which dismissed her appeal on 5 July 2013. However, in an obiter dictum, the Court of Appeal agreed with her interpretation of Article 49(1) of the Constitution rather than the Prime Minister's interpretation.
caption: Yaw Shin Leong during his rally speech at Serangoon Stadium as a candidate of the Workers' Party of Singapore during the 2011 general election
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