KOTA KINABALU: Defeated Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidate for Kota Marudu, Datuk Maijol Mahap told the trial of his election petition yesterday that the results from 20 polling stations showed that he obtained the highest votes.
Moijol said he came to know of the outcome of the poll after having perused all the certified copies of Form 14 from the 20 polling stations in the constituency.
He told Election Court judge Yew Jen Kie that he only had the chance to go through all the certified copies of the Form 14 after the bundle of documents filed by the respondents, Returning Officer (RO) for the Kota Marudu parliamentary constituency and the Election Commission (EC).
Maijol, who was represented by counsel Fulton Mark Sitiwin, and seeking to nullify the result for the seat, had filed his petition on May 12 this year, naming PBS-BN winner Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili, the RO and the EC as respondents.
In his petition, Maijol, among others, questioned the issue on the use of indelible ink, bribery and the failure to observe election laws, which he claimed had affected the result of the election as a whole.
On August 13 this year, Yew allowed Ongkili’s preliminary objection and struck him out from the petition as Maijol had not pleaded enough facts on the allegation of corrupt practice against Ongkili.
However, she ordered a full trial against the RO and EC. The Kuching-based High Court judge also ruled that Ongkili’s name would still remain in the petition as it would depend on the evidence adduced during the trial.
When cross-examined by Senior Federal Counsel (SFC) Zawawi Ghazali, Maijol further said that if on the night of the votes tallying at Kota Marudu community hall he had all the copies of the Form 14 it could have been different.
“When I look at it now, it showed that I obtained the highest votes but on that night at the hall, I did not have those copies of the Form 14 and it could have been different if I had them,” he explained.
He further testified that with the absence of the copies of Form 14 that night it could have affected the final result or potentially affected the final result.
“It is also shown in the copies of the Form 14 that there were 1,476 unreturned ballot papers as compared to 48 as gazetted. So there was a discrepancy here,” Maijol pointed out.
To a suggestion by Zawawi, he said that his election agent could not witness the tallying of votes at the hall because it was done by the RO.
“I was told by my election agent that he was not allowed to go near the RO during the tallying of votes,” said Maijol.
When questioned whether Maijol had lodged any police report regarding the incident which he stated in his witness statement that “The RO did not allow my (Maijol’s) election agent to see all the Form 14 from the respective 20 polling stations which my election agent had requested, in fact the RO had asked the police to evict me and my team from the hall,” Maijol answered, “I did not”.
“I could have lodged a police report but we felt that it was not necessary because even in the absence of a police report we can still seek redress from another party namely, this honourable court,” said Maijol.
Zawawi was assisted by SFC Noerazlim Saidil and federal counsel Intan Illani Mohd Azani for the RO and EC while counsel Chin Teck Ming held a watching brief for Ongkili.
The trial continues today.