‘Election Court handling of Tapah petition absurd’
The Election Court handling of the PKR’s candidate for Tapah constituency K Vasantha Kumar petition is absurd and the RM190,000 cost the highest ever, PKR vice-president R Sivarasa
Leven Woon, FMT
PKR’s candidate for Tapah constituency K Vasantha Kumar said he has a good case in his petition with the Election Court, but he could not even speak for himself when his two lawyers were dismissed by the court.
In addition, he was ordered to bear a whopping RM190,000 cost by the judge without his presence in the court.
PKR vice-president R Sivarasa (pic) said the court’s handling of the Tapah election petition was “absurd” to say the least.
He said the judge Abdul Rahman Sebili first stripped him off the petitioner’s counsel team on Aug 14, on a respondent’s complaint who said that the Sivarasa’s name was not found on the original petition sheet.
“Election petition must be filed in three weeks after the results were gazetted, so that time there was only K Hariharan’s name on it.
“But for a civil process, lawyer can be appointed and changed anytime during the proceedings,” he said.
As Sivarasa duly withdrew, the respondent’s lawyers made another complaint the next day that one document submitted by Hariharan contained typo mistake that spells the word “advocate” (peguambela) as “lawyer” (peguam).
“For that the judge said Hariharan could not appear in court.
“But even if it is an error, what is the implication of it to the case? The ruling loses sight on the whole purpose of the petition,” Sivarasa said.
