KUALA LUMPUR, June 21: PKR central leadership council member Zaid Ibrahim has urged Barisan Nasional to appeal against the ruling on Batu member of parliament Tian Chua after the judge confirmed his decision amid debate over whether Tian was still qualified as MP.

“BN must appeal, after all EC (Election Commission) decides, according to them, if there’s a vacancy,” he said in a twitter message today.

Zaid said that in Barisan Nasional, the Election Commission seemed to have greater power than the court to decide whether there should be a by-election, as demonstrated in the Perak state assembly fiasco.

On June 15, 2009, the Federal Court ruled that the Election Commission (EC), and not the legislative assembly speaker, had the right to decide whether or not a seat was vacant.

Earlier, Justice Ghazali Cha said there was no need for him to review his ruling to impose RM2,000 fine on Tian Chua last week.

The ruling had set off a string of opinions over the media as the amount imposed was still enough to disqualify Tian Chua as a MP.

Ghazali however reiterated that he made the decision to avoid a by-election to be held in the parliamentary constituency.

Meanwhile, Zaid poked his sarcasm at what he said was BN's "loss of appetite" to have a by-election.

“Why suddenly BN (has) no appetite, not popular?” he asked.