Beaufort election petition struck out with costs
KOTA KINABALU: The election petition of defeated Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Isnin Aliasnih seeking to nullify the result for Klias state seat won by Datuk Lajim Ukin of Parti Keadlian Rakyat (PKR) will go for a full trial.
Election Court judge Yew Jen Kie made the order in her reserved ruling yesterday, and said the hearing date for the trial would be fixed at a later date.
The Kuching-based High Court judge meanwhile struck out the Returning Officer (RO) and Election Commission (EC) as respondents, and ordered Isnin, who was represented by counsel Japar Estaban, Saiful Aizat Moktar and Rizwandean Bukhari Borhan, to pay cost of RM10,000 to the RO and EC.
In striking out the RO and EC from the election petition, the judge ruled that Isnin did not plead how the RO and EC’s action had affected the outcome of the Klias state election.
The judge among others held that there were two issues in granting Isnin’s preliminary objection (PO) that Lajim or his agent allegedly used handbill without the printer’s name and address, and his agent allegedly promised to give money to voters.
The seat was won by Lajim who obtained 6,324 votes with a slim majority of 342.
Meanwhile, the same judge struck out the election petition filed by Lajim to challenge the validity of the result for the Beaufort parliamentary seat which was won by Datuk Hajah Azizah Mohd Dun who was the BN candidate.
Judge ordered Lajim, who was represented by counsel Datuk Chau Chin Tang and Datuk Lawrence Thien, to pay RM30,000 cost to Azizah while RM10,000 cost to the RO Jupari @ Jupri Etok and EC, respectively.
In his petition filed on June 11 this year, Lajim said he was challenging the validity of the outcome of the Beaufort parliamentary election based on several grounds such as abuse of powers; unqualified individuals having cast their votes; votes buying and discrepancies in the election process like the easily washable indelible ink as well as power blackout during the counting of votes.
He said his petition in challenging the poll results was substantiated with material evidence such as video clips, among other things.
In the May 5 general election, Lajim who was the incumbent was involved in a three-cornered fight with Azizah and Guan Dee Bin Koh Hoi of STAR Sabah.
Azizah won the seat by a slim majority of 673 votes. She garnered 12,827 votes against Lajim’s 12,154. Guan Dee received 409.