Raymond arriving at the Kota Kinabalu Court with his supporters today, around 9.30am.
KOTA KINABALU: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Pensiangan parliamentary candidate Raymond Ahuar filed an election petition at the Kota Kinabalu Court, contesting the win of Barisan Nasional candidate Arthur Joseph Kurup.
Raymond said the petition was filed on the grounds of money politics where voters had allegedly been bribed, according to those who came forward following the recent 14th general election.
“There were about 30 people representing their families, who voluntarily lodged police reports saying they had been given money to secure votes.
“At first, we only heard rumours about it but then more and more people voluntarily lodged reports, while some of them even returned the money they had supposedly been given. This gave us the confidence to file the petition,” he said.
According to voters, Raymond added, the money distributed is believed to range from RM50 to RM1,000, purportedly handed out before, during and after polling day on May 9.
He said the grounds of the petition leaned more towards money politics as there were no problems with the signing and submission of Form 14.
“The Election Commission did their job during the election. We also did not experience a repeat of GE13, where there was power outage.
“Maybe this (filing the petition) is a way for us to have a reelection in Pensiangan. But it’s not a question of win or lose. At least, we want to educate our people that corruption is a serious offence in any election.
“Most of those who are caught will say they don’t know that it’s wrong to accept money. This also shows how Barisan Nasional managed to make us think that way,” said Raymond.