Selising state seat remains under Barisan Nasional

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Election Court throws out PAS’ petition over result in GE 13

KOTA BAHARU: The Election Court here yesterday dismissed PAS’ petition to cancel the result for the Selising state seat in the 13th General Election on May 5 which was won by the Barisan Nasional (BN).

Judge Datuk Zamani Abdul Rahim said he dismissed the petition because the petitioners failed to observe petitioning rules.

“This petition is not in order and as such dismissed with costs,” he said in his judgement.

Zamani then ordered the petitioners to pay costs of RM30,000.

In that contest, the BN’s Zulkifle Ali defeated Saiful Bahrim Mohamad of PAS and an independent candidate, Ibrahim Ismail, by a majority of 107 votes.

The petition was filed by PAS’ election director for Selising, Semsudin Muhammad.

In yesterday’s proceedings, Zamani also dismissed preliminary objections filed by the defendants from PAS on petitions filed by the BN over the results for the Bachok parliamentary and Jelawat and Gaal state seats.

Zamani ordered the defendants to pay cost of RM30,000 for each preliminary objection dismissed.

He then set Aug 12 to 15 and Aug 18 to 22 to hear the Bachok and Jelawat petitions, and Sept 1-5 for the Gaal petition.

As for the petition on the Machang parliamentary seat, Zamani set July 16 to hear preliminary objections, and if dismissed, Sept 8 to 12 for the hearing.

BN candidate Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussin lost in Bachok to PAS’ Ahmad Marzuk Shaary by 201 votes while his compatriot Datuk Ilias Husain was defeated by Abdul Aziz Kadir of PAS in Jelawat by just 102 votes.

In Machang, PKR’s Wan Zawawi Wan Ismail lost to Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub of the BN by 805 votes and in Gaal, the BN’s Redzuan Stapha lost to PAS’s Tuan Mazlan Tuan Mat by 302 votes.

Earlier, Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun, the lead lawyer for the BN legal team, had objected to the presence of three lawyers to represent the petitioner on the Machang result.

According to him, the trio, R. Sivarasa, Lateefa Koya and Mohammad Afiq could not represent the petitioner because they were not defence counsel duly appointed by the petitioner as required by procedures under the Election Petitions Act 1954.

Zamani allowed the objection.

The legal team for PAS and PKR was led by lawyer Hisham Fauzi.

In the May 5 general election, PAS won 32 state seats in Kelantan, PKR won one while the BN 12.

As for parliamentary seats, the BN won five of the 14 seats at stake while the rest all went to PAS.

Mohd Hafarizam, met by reporters afterwards, said he was happy with the outcome in yesterday’s proceedings.

“We are happy that our three petitions will go for full hearing. This serves as a benchmark for our friends in others states to pursue the 21 other petitions filed by the BN,” he said. — Bernama