Record number of polls petitions
(The Star) – Malaysia could see a record number of election petitions – close to 100 – being filed before the June 12 deadline.
In a last-ditch effort, both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat are hoping to change the outcome of the 13th general election results through the petitions.
Pakatan Rakyat is 23 seats away from forming a government while Barisan Nasional is 15 seats away from having a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Barisan secured 133 of the 222 parliamentary seats while DAP won 38 seats, PKR 30 and PAS 21.
PKR is taking up the lion’s share of Pakatan’s election petitions with almost 20 cases while DAP is optimistic about filing five cases.
PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali said the party would file “four or five” election petitions for the state seats in Terengganu, where Pakatan is just two seats away from forming the state government.
The party is expected to file close to 15 throughout the country.
“We know that our track record with election petitions is not very good. In fact, we have not won any so far, but we will see this time,” Mustafa said yesterday.
A total of 29 election petitions were filed after the 2008 general election but only one was successful.
Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor (pic) was reported to have said that the party would file election petitions in more than 50 parliamentary and state seats before the deadline, but he did not disclose the seats concerned.
He also said Umno was studying whether to file petitions in another 37 seats.
DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke said his party’s election petitions are all in seats where they lost marginally, such as Bentong (379 votes), Cameron Highlands (462 votes), Labis (353 votes) and the Paloh state seat in Johor (103 votes).
He acknowledged it would be an uphill battle to win a by-election if the election results were nullified.
“Preparing the evidence and documentation is not easy, but this general election was different. The demand by voters and public pressure is so great that it’s our duty to use every channel we can,” Loke said.
It was reported that Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria had given the assurance that the petitions could be settled within a year if everything proceeds smoothly.
He said judges selected to preside over the cases had been advised to dispose of the cases within six months.
“Otherwise, it will not go in line with the law and the decision will be late. This is because there is still the appeal process, which would take another six months,” Arifin said.
