'Zaid's election petition defective'

The hearing of Hulu Selangor MP P Kamalanathan's application to strike out an election petition filed by PKR supreme council member Zaid Ibrahim has begun in the Kuala Lumpur High Court, which is sitting as an Election Court.

Zaid had yesterday lost in his preliminary objection against the striking out application when election judge Justice Azahar Mohamed ruled he was bound by a Federal Court ruling to allow such applications to be made before the petition is heard.

Kamalanathan had applied to strike out Zaid's petition on July 1 on the grounds that it was trivial and an abuse of the court process.

He claimed that Zaid had failed to identify the people said to have offered bribes by the premier during the election campaign, as alleged in the election petition.

Kamalanathan further said that Zaid had failed to abide by the Election Petition Rules in filing the petition.

He said the pleading in the petition does not fall under Section 32(c) of the Election Offences Act 1954 (EOA), as it does not fall within the meaning of corrupt practices as stipulated under Section 10(a) of the Act.

Kamalanathan's lead counsel Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin submitted today that non-compliance with the Election Petition Rules would affect the court's jurisdiction, as it has not been properly established.

This court has been specially set up to hear an election petition and derives its powers under the EOA.

'No advertisement'

Firoz Hussein also submitted that the petition is defective as there has been no proper production of a notice of presentation of the petition, which should have been pasted at the Shah Alam High Court and advertised in a national language newspaper.

"It was clear that no advertisement was placed. Failure to comply should result in the petition being dismissed," he argued.

Justice Azahar will also hear the Election Commission's preliminary objection on the grounds that Zaid had failed to provide sufficient proof over the alleged corrupt practice.

Zaid had filed the petition on May 24 to declare the result of the Hulu Selangor by-election - held on April 25 - as null and void. He lost by 1,725 votes, which saw the parliamentary seat return to the BN.

He alleged that corruption had taken place in the form of bribery and including promises made by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to provide allocations to the voters if BN wins. He further alleged that Kamalanathan knew of the promises.

The focal point of the case is Najib's promise of RM3 million to SRJK (C) Rasa School and also an offer of RM50,000 to the Felda settlers.

Zaid has named Kamalanathan, returning officer Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan and the Election Commission as the respondents.

courtesy of Malaysiakini