Accept final ruling, parties told

(The Star) - With the deadline to file election petitions now over, the Election Commission (EC) has reminded all parties to accept the eventual decision of the court on their legal bid to challenge the results of the 13th general election.

EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof said petitioners unhappy with the High Court ruling that will hear their cases could send their appeals to the Federal Court, which will make a final decision.

“I urge all parties who have filed petitions to accept the court's final ruling and not blame the court if the decision is not in their favour,” he said yesterday.

The 21-day period to file election petitions following the gazetting of the GE13 results ended at 5pm yesterday.

Abdul Aziz said the petitioners had 15 days to notify and submit a copy of their petitions to the EC after filing their petitions at the High Court.

The EC would then prepare affidavits in response to the petitions before the High Court decides whether the cases should proceed to a hearing or be dismissed.

Abdul Aziz said the Attorney-General's Chambers had assigned a team of lawyers in each state to represent the commission in court and that the team will be coordinated by the commission's legal adviser.

It was reported that Barisan Nasional has decided to file 21 election petitions, fewer than half of the 50 initially announced by its chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Pakatan Rakyat has managed to squeeze in three more election petitions yesterday, bringing the total to 29 complaints, hours before the deadline.

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli said the three petitions were for the Kudat, Tawau and Libaran parliamentary seats.

The petitions for the parliamentary seats from PKR involved 18 parliamentary and one state seats. PAS will be challenging the results in four parliamentary and nine state seats while DAP will petition against two parliamentary seats.

DAP candidate for Cameron Highlands M. Manogaran filed a petition at the Temerloh High Court. The seat was won by MIC president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel.

In Ipoh, PAS filed three petitions for the Perak state seats of Rungkup, Manong and Selama, while PKR filed its petition for the Tapah parliamentary seat.

In Johor Baru, the state PKR filed petitions for the Tebrau and Pasir Gudang parliamentary seats.