As the Presidential Election 2023 (PE2023) was taking place on Friday (1 Sep), controversial lawyer M Ravi was attempting to render the entire thing moot.
He filed a court application to declare one of the candidates, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, unfit for the presidency.
He has since failed in his bid to do so and must pay S$6,000 in costs.
On Thursday (31 Aug), which was Cooling-Off Day for PE2023, Mr Ravi posted a video at 9am saying he was outside the Supreme Court.
Source: Ravi MRavi on Facebook
He was there for a hearing at 9.15am on his application regarding Mr Tharman.
He also said Healing The Divide founder Iris Koh would be assisting him in court.
The human rights lawyer claimed the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) is opposing his application as he’s a “vexatious litigant”, due to him previously filing a challenge during the 2011 presidential election.
This is also why the case is being heard in chambers, he said.
Mr Ravi said he expected his application to be overruled and was apparently proven right.
At 12.40pm, he shared an article reporting that the court had ruled that he was “wasting the court’s time”.
About 35 minutes later, he posted that he was ordered to pay S$6,000, ostensibly in costs.
Source: M Ravi on Facebook
Mr Ravi isn’t giving up, however. He earlier said that the case would proceed to open court if it’s overruled.
He subsequently shared a fund-raising appeal to finance the Supreme Court appeal on this matter.
Later at 5.55pm, he said that a Notice of Appeal had been filed.
However, on Polling Day (1 Sep) itself, Mr Ravi shared a statement he said was from a human rights lawyer acting for him. It said the Court of Appeal “did not accept the filing of the Notice of Appeal”.
It claimed that he would need the AGC’s permission to initiate judicial review. The post further mooted the possibility of a constitutional challenge on the validity of the Presidential Elections, “if an unsuited or ineligible presidential candidate is elected”.
Strangely enough, Mr Ravi also claimed on the same day that S$6,500 in cash had gone missing from his hotel room. His bag and wallet are also gone, he alleged.
The saga started on Tuesday (29 Aug), when Mr Ravi took to Facebook to announce that he had filed a Supreme Court application for Mr Tharman to be removed from running in PE2023.
He also called for Mr Tharman’s Certificate of Eligibility, which the latter received on 18 Aug, to be revoked.
Source: Facebook
He claimed that the former Senior Minister had breached Article 19 of the Constitution of Singapore, which states that a person shall be qualified to become President if they are not subject to any of the disqualifications in Article 45, which includes being convicted of an offence by a Singapore court.
In the early 90s, Mr Tharman went on trial for breaching the Official Secrets Act after being accused of disclosing classified information, later published in The Business Times.
Furthermore, Mr Ravi said Mr Tharman had breached Article 27 by being “determined not to renounce his appointments internationally”.
Earlier this year, Mr Ravi was handed a five-year suspension from practising law in Singapore for making accusations of improper conduct against various parties.
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Featured image adapted from Ravi MRavi on Facebook and MS News.
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