KOTA KINABALU: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) polling agent Ainin Akon told the Election Court here yesterday that the Ketua Tempat Mengundi (KTM) at the polling stream he was stationed only counted ballots once.
According to him, the ballots must be counted two or three times, but the KTM (polling station head) at Sekolah Kebangsaan Indaraon Laut said there was no need.
“I made an objection. The KTM said no need to count anymore because the ballot box would be brought to the Kota Marudu Community Hall where counting would be done again,” he said.
Ainin was testifying before the court which is hearing the PKR candidate’s election petition on the result of the Kota Marudu parliamentary seat in the 13th General Election held on May 5.
He also said that he was not given Form 14, which records the total number of votes obtained by each candidate and number of spoilt votes.
“I should have been given Form 14. But the KTM did not hand me a copy and said he had been instructed by the Returning Officer (RO) not to distribute copies (of Form 14) to anyone,” he said.
In the petition, the PKR candidate Datuk Maijol Mahap, had named Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili, who won the seat for the Barisan Nasional (BN), as the first respondent and RO Lovita Koisun and the Election Commission (EC) as the second and third respondents respectively.
On Aug 13, Judge Datuk Yew Jen Kee had ruled that allegations of corruption against Ongkili pertaining to the contest be dropped from the petition but maintained Ongkili as the first respondent by virtue of him being the winner.
In his petition, Mahap had claimed that copies of Form 14 were not given to PKR’s polling agents.
Ongkili won by a majority of 842 votes after garnering 15,168 votes in a four-cornered fight. Mahap obtained 14,326 votes, Star candidate Majamis Timbong (2,228 votes) while Yuntau alias Kuntau Kolod (SAPP) only managed 444 votes. — Bernama