///Once Perlis Speaker, Yazid Mat has confirmed receipt of Yip’s letter of resignation, Yip’s letter of resignation cannot be retracted or it could be challenged in a court of law/// – YB Kit.

With respect, I believe that in Boleh land and by its laws, Yip Sun Onn’s letter can be retracted, if he so wishes, and there will not be a by-election in this BN controlled state.

Firstly, it can be argued that until Speaker Yazid accepts it, it can be retracted by Yip if he changes his mind (before the acceptance) after MCA leaders including Chew Mei Fun appease him. The argument that Speaker’s role is confined to ascertaining “whether Yip’s letter of resignation was a genuine one or whether the signature was counterfeit or result of blackmail” – the part “genuine” may be argued to include finality of decision on Yip’s part made freely that includes his changing his mind before Speaker’s acceptance. [The point that tips the scale in favour of an assemblyman changing his mind about resignation (done in a haste) is that not allowing him to resign is consistent with public policy of ensuring his constituency that voted him in are not deprived of his representation by an impulsive resignation!)

Secondly, to say that the Perlis Speaker has no part to play except just to accept the resignation passively is to contradict Pakatan Rakyat (PR)’s earlier stand in the Perak constitutional imbroglio when and where it was consistent stand of PR that its Perak speaker Sivakumar had the sole prerogative to determine if the resignations of the three kataks – Jamaluddin Mat Radzi and Mohd Osman Jailu and He Yit Foong – took effect thereby establishing a “casual vacancy” within meaning of article 36(5) of Perak State Constitution for purposes of activating a by-election….

The third and the most compelling reason – it is the Election Commission – and not the Speaker – that has final say in determining whether, having regard to the state constitution, there is a casual vacancy for by election. This was decided by the Federal Court on 8th June 2009 in the case between the 3 kataks and Sivakumar where the former said that their letters of resignation did not trake effect whilst Sivakumar argued that they did. The Perlis Constitution on casual vacancy [article 5(5)] is para material in wordings with that of Perak state Constitution [article 36(5)] so that if it was decided by the apex court that the Election Commission has final say whether the resignation under the Perak state Constitution takes effect and a casual vacancy is established as a consequence thereof, then this will equally apply to the Perlis’s State Constitution of same wordings. [This is not the case for states like Johore, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Terengganu and Sabah whose state constitutions are worded differently from Perak’s and Perlis’s in that they do not make explicit reference to Election Commission’s establishing/determining a “casual vacancy” in the assembly to be filled within 60 days!]

The upshot is that if Yip changes his mind about resigning, he will argue that he is entitled to do so for so long as the Speaker has not accepted the resignation, and in any case the decision of the BN’s speaker and the Election Commission will be in accord to confirm their determination that no casual vacancy is established (due to Yip’s change of mind).