File photo of Dr Tan Cheng Bock. (Photo: AFP)

SINGAPORE: The Court of Appeal on Wednesday (Aug 23) threw out Mr Tan Cheng Bock's appeal against a decision to dismiss an application contesting the legitimacy of the upcoming reserved Presidential Election (PE). This was confirmed by Deputy Attorney-General Hri Kumar to Channel NewsAsia.

The Court of Appeal had reserved judgment in July earlier this year on Dr Tan's appeal.

Channel NewsAsia also understands the court stated it was lawful for Parliament to specify President Wee Kim Wee's last term as the first term, for the purposes of determining a reserved election.

Dr Tan challenged the Government's decision to hold a PE reserved for Malays in September, following amendments to the Constitution passed last year.

He took issue with what he said was the Government’s “unconstitutional” decision to count President Wee's as Singapore’s first elected President. They should have started counting from elected President Ong Teng Cheong’s term, Dr Tan argued.

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