Federal Court allows election petitions for Bagan Datoh, Tapah and two other seats to be heard

(The Star) – The Federal Court here has granted an appeal by PKR candidate Madhi Hasan and voter Azmi Sulaiman for the Bagan Datoh election petition to be heard.

The decision of the Apex Court on Monday sends the petition back to the Election Court.

In allowing the appeal, a five-men bench headed by Justice Raus Sharif said that anyone could file the petition.

Counsel New Sin Yew, who acted for the two appellants, said the court ruled that the petitioner did not have to physically file the petition himself.

“As a result, the Election Court was wrong and the Federal Court remitted the petition to the Election Court to hear on the merits,” he said.

Madhi and Azmi filed two petitions on the grounds that Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is Home Minister, had allegedly committed corrupt and illegal practices, including vote-buying and spending above the RM200,000 limit allowed in the election campaign for a parliamentary seat.

In the 13 General Election on May 5, Ahmad Zahid polled 17,176 votes while Madhi obtained 15,068.

The other counsel were Edmund Bon, Chan Yen Hui and Joshua Tay while Datuk Firoz Hussein acted for Dr Ahmad Zahid.

Other petitions ordered to be sent back to the Election Court, based on similar grounds, were for the Ketereh parliamentary constituency in Kelantan, and the Tapah Parliamentary and Lubuk Merbau state seats in Perak.

The Tapah election petition was filed by K. Vasantha Kumar.

Datuk M. Saravanan of Barisan Nasional, who is Youth and Sports Deputy Minister, won the seat.

Nurul Izzah maintained her victory after the Federal Court dismissed an appeal by voter Mohamad Sazali Kamilan, returning officer Rolan Abd Rahman and the Election Commission on the grounds that the petition lacked material facts and it had no cause of action against the respondents.

Nurul defeated Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin, the former Minister of Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing, with a majority of 1,847 votes.

The court had also dismissed the appeal for the Sungai Besar and Kuala Selangor election petitions and ordered the appellants to pay each of the six repondents RM10,000 in costs.

The Sungai Besar and Kuala Selangor parliamentary seats were won by Datuk Noriah Kasnon and Datuk Irmohizam Ibrahim, both of Barisan Nasional, respectively.

The appeal for the Batu election petition was also dismissed by the court based on similar grounds. The seat was won by Tian Chua of PKR.