The Malaysian Insight

ELECTION courts in Terengganu will tomorrow hear Perikatan Nasional’s applications to dismiss election petitions against its victory in the Marang, Kuala Terengganu and Kemaman parliamentary seats.

Lawyer Wan Rohimi Wan Daud, who is representing PN in the three cases, said the petition for the Marang seat will be heard in the morning while the proceedings for Kuala Terengganu and Kemaman petitions will be heard in the afternoon. 

PN’s failure to dismiss the petitions would mean the court would hear the merit of the petitions.

PN’s objections against the petitions are based on the lack of facts about the alleged corruption involving its winning candidates.

This includes the petitioners’ failure to state in detail the date and full name of the recipients who had allegedly received money to vote for the PN candidates.

“We found that there are no complete facts about the alleged corruption said to have been done by our agents.

“They (the petitioners) did not show any links to the alleged person(s) who induced the voters for our candidates.

“They also did not name the recipients of the money and did not state the exact date of the alleged incident,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Wan Rohimi also said that the petitioners had claimed that all aid given by the state government to the people, as approved in the state budget in the Terengganu legislative assembly, was an act of corruption.

“How can this be considered as corruption in the GE? They did not prove it specifically, but simply stated that the origin of government aid is all considered corruption,” said the lawyer who is also the PAS’ Law and Human Rights Committee chairman. 

Petitions to annul the PN’s victory in three seats were filed by the losing Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates, Jasmira Othman (Marang), Mohd Zubir Embong (Kuala Terengganu), and Ahmad Said (Kemaman). 

Ahmad, who is also Terengganu Umno chairman, said they wanted to cancel the election results in the three seats because there was “clear evidence” from witnesses who claimed to have received money from PAS.

The three petitions were filed in the Kuala Terengganu High Court on January 3.

Wan Rohimi is representing the three winning PN candidates from PAS include president Abdul Hadi Awang (Marang), Ahmad Amzad Hashim (Kuala Terengganu) and Che Alias Hamid (Kemaman).

Technical issues

The lawyer also said that their preliminary objections were made on technical issues, including the time limit for filing petitions as stipulated in the Election Offences Act 1954. 

He said the three petitions could have been filed outside the stipulated time period, which is 28 days from the date of the alleged bribery of voters.

“Basically the corruption allegation is on polling day, which was on November 19 last year, and the petition was filed on January 3.

Based on those dates, the three petitions were filed 46 days after polling day, “exceeding the time period provided by law”, he said.

Meanwhile, lawyer for BN’s losing candidates, Amir Othman is confident that the election court will reject the objections raised by the PN winners.

He said this was based on previous decisions made in other election petitions.

He referred to the results of the petition against the results of the 2018 general election for the Cameron Highland parliamentary seat and Sungai Udang state seat.

“Courts tend to hear cases involving allegations of corruption,” he said.

In a press conference last week, Amir also said that his party would produce 20 witnesses to support their petition.

Initial objections to the petition for the Marang seat will be heard physically while for the other two petitions will be made online.

The petition for the Marang parliamentary seat will be heard by Kuala Terengganu High Court judge Hassan Abdul Ghani. 

Shah Alam High Court judge Mohd Firuz Jaffril meanwhile will hear the petition for the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat while Kota Baru High Court judicial commissioner Mohamad Abazafree Mohd Abbas will hear the petition for the Kemaman parliamentary seat.

In the recent polls, PN made a complete sweep of all parliamentary seats in Terengganu.

PAS/PN has also been administering the state government since the general election in 2018. State polls are expected to be held sometime in May this year. – January 29, 2023.