Anifah fails to stay court ruling on Kimanis

Former foreign minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman today failed to stay a Federal Court ruling in nullifying his victory in the Kimanis parliamentary seat in the last general election, pending the hearing of his review application.

The Federal Court's five-member bench led by Mohd Zawawi Salleh unanimously dismissed Anifah's (photo) application after finding there were no special circumstances for the court to grant the stay.

“We have considered the arguments raised by parties. We are of the view that there were no special circumstances for us to exercise our discretion to grant the stay. Therefore, we dismissed the application (stay) with costs,” said justice Nawawi.

He also ordered Anifah to pay costs of RM30,000 to each of the three respondents, namely Parti Warisan Sabah candidate Karim Bujang, the returning officer for the Kimanis parliamentary seat and the Election Commission (EC).

Zawawi, who presided over the stay hearing with Federal Court judges Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Abdul Rahman Sebli, Zaleha Yusof and Zabariah Mohd Yusof, set Jan 3 to hear the review application.

He also told all parties to file their written submissions.

Anifah is seeking to review the ruling made by a different panel of the Federal Court on Dec 2 which dismissed his appeal to set aside the Election Court ruling, resulting in a by-election to be called in the constituency.

The Kimanis parliamentary by-election is scheduled on Jan 18, with nomination on Jan 4.

Earlier, lawyer Tengku Fuad Tengku Ahmad, representing Anifah, submitted that his client sought to stay the Federal Court’s order pending the hearing of his review application.

“We are not seeking for the EC to stop from exercising its duty to hold the by-election under the Federal Constitution,” he said.

Lawyer Frederick Chang Tyn Chi, acting for Karim, argued that the Federal Court had no discretion to grant the stay as the appeal over the election petition had been disposed of by the previous panel of the Federal Court.

“If the stay is granted, it would be restraining the EC from conducting its duty for the by-election,” he added.

Furthermore, he said, Anifah was no longer an MP as the seat had been declared vacant following the Federal Court’s decision on Dec 10.

The Election Court had, on Aug 16, declared null and void Anifah's win in the Kimanis seat in Sabah in the 14th General Election.

Anifah had won the seat with a 156-vote majority, securing 11,942 votes against Karim’s 11,786 votes while another candidate, Jaafar Ismail of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, had obtained 1,300 votes.

Karim had filed the election petition on June 18 last year to challenge the election result.

On Feb 18 this year, the Federal Court remitted Karim's election petition back to the Election Court for trial after allowing his appeal to set aside the Election Court's earlier decision to strike out his (Karim's) petition.

On Nov 19, 2018, the Election Court judge Supang Lian had struck out Karim’s election petition.

The matter was then remitted back for trial before another Election Court judge Lee Heng Chung who subsequently nullified the results for that constituency, ruling that the presence of additional ballot papers had influenced the results of the polls.

- Bernama