KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Anifah Aman will be filing a revision application against the Federal Court’s decision which upheld the Election Court’s verdict that the Kimanis parliamentary seat was null and void.
According to his lawyer, Tengku Fuad Ahmad, Anifah is expected to file the revision within this week.
On June 18, 2018, Parti Warisan Sabah candidate Datuk Karim Bujang had filed his petition to challenge the result for the said election at the High Court here and named Anifah, returning officer (RO) and Election Commission (EC) as the respondents.
However on Nov 19, 2018, the Election Court here had allowed a preliminary objection raised by Anifah and struck out Karim’s election petition against the three respondents.
Karim then appealed to the Federal Court in Putrajaya against the Election Court’s decision whereby on February 19, the Federal Court had sent back the petition to the Election Court here for a trial.
Then on August 16, the Election Court here declared that the election results for the seat during the 14th General Election (GE14) void due to the failure of the RO for the said seat and EC to ensure the election for the constituency to be accurate during GE14 held on May 9, 2018.
Following the decision, Anifah had appealed to the Federal Court in Putrajaya, which on December 2, a five-man panel unanimously affirmed the Election Court’s verdict that the said seat be declared void.
In the last GE14, the seat saw the battle of three candidates, namely Anifah (BN-Umno), Karim and Jaafar Ismail of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah.
Anifah won by a slim majority with 11,942 votes over Karim’s 11,786 and Jaafar 1,300 who lost his deposit.
Before the GE14, Anifah was Minister of Foreign Affairs while Karim was an assistant minister in the State Cabinet during then Parti Bersatu Sabah’s era.