Tapah parliamentary petition struck out

IPOH: The Election Court today has struck out the Tapah parliamentary election petition brought by Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Vasantha Kumar.

Judge Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli dismissed the petition after ruling that Vasantha was not qualified to plead his petition.

Vasantha had to plead his own petition after the same court ruled earlier in the morning that his counsel K. Hariharan could not appear as his counsel.

(Abdul Rahman had ruled that Hariharan was not appointed as an advocate as per the requirement of Rule 9 of the Election Petition Rules 1954.)

Abdul Rahman said Vasantha did not have the qualification of an advocate to argue his own petition.

With the striking of the suit, Barisan Nasional's Datuk M. Saravaan is the legitimate elected representative for the Tapah parliamentary.

Yesterday, the same court had disqualified Vasantha's pool of five lawyers, namely, Sivarasa Rasiah, Malik Imtiaz, Gobind Singh, Baldip Singh and Chan Kok Keong from representing him.

- nst.com.my