10-vote majority: BN-Umno candidate claims Warisan won Kukusan through bribery

 

Bribery is reasonably the cause of how a Warisan candidate won the Kukusan seat with a mere 10-vote majority in the 2020 Sabah state election, claimed a BN-Umno candidate.

Chaya Sulaiman raised this allegation in his election petition seeking to challenge Rina Jainal’s victory in the Sabah seat during the state polls on Sept 26, last year.

The applicant claimed that this was borne out by several incidents in the campaigning period prior to the election.

In one incident on Sept 25, 2020, Chaya claimed Rina’s agent purportedly gave RM100 to two constituents.

She alleged that this is the modus operandi of the first respondent (Rina) - to give money and handbill to induce the receiver to vote for her.

She claimed that this constituted bribery within Section 10(a) of the Election Offences Act 1954, and corrupt practice within Section 11(1)(b) of the Act.

“That the actions of the first respondent (Rina) and/or her agents as described under Paragraph 5.1 to 5.4 above showed that general bribery has so extensively prevailed during the said election that it may be reasonably supposed to have affected the result of the said election (bearing in mind that the majority garnered by the first respondent was only 10 votes).

“As a consequence, the result of the said election ought to be declared void pursuant to the provision of Section 32 (a) of the Election Offences Act 1954,” Chaya claimed in her election petition.

She alleged that as the bribery was done with the knowledge or consent of Rina, the result of the election ought to be declared void.

Facebook account

Chaya (photo below) also alleged that Rina managed to win the seat with a mere 10-vote majority due to her or her agent canvassing for votes on polling day itself, namely Sept 26, 2020.

She claimed that this was done via a posting uploaded to her Facebook account, which he alleged contravened Section 26(1)(f) of the Election Offences Act.

Chaya then listed the names and IC numbers of nine Kukusan constituents who were allegedly induced by the FB post to vote for Rina.

In the state election, Rina polled 2,834 votes, followed closely by Chaya with 2,824 votes.

Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah's Wong Jin Soon came in third, winning 796 votes, or 11.94 percent of the votes cast.

Wong came just four votes shy of retaining his deposit.

There were seven candidates for Kukusan - a new seat located near Tawau. The voter turnout was a dismal 53.97 percent.

Meanwhile, through Raymond Guok and two other lawyers, Rina has filed an application to strike out the election petition.

According to a copy of the striking-out application dated Nov 16, 2020, sighted by Malaysiakini, one of the reasons cited was that the election petition failed to provide particulars as to whether the alleged individuals, who received the money, among others, have actually voted for Rina.

Rina claimed that the petition failed to plead facts and particulars on how the general bribery had so extensively prevailed that it had affected the result of the election, as required under Section 32 (a) of the Election Offences Act.

She claimed that the petition failed to plead the concise material facts of the alleged corrupt practice in order to disclose a complete cause of action.

“The petition failed to plead any facts which showed how the complaints affected the actual result of the election, other than an insufficiently worded general statement saying ‘bearing in mind that the majority garnered by the first respondent was only 10 votes’,” she contended.

She also claimed that the petition should be struck out over an alleged technical defect in the appointment of Chaya’s seven lawyers for the matter.

Rina claimed that the technical defect arose when the notice of appointment for the seven lawyers for Chaya was filed by Messrs Azhier Arisin & Co, instead of the petitioner’s advocates personally.

(Chaya’s election petition was filed by Messrs Azhier Arisin & Co at the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak in Tawau on Oct 19 last year.)

Rina claimed that this goes against Rules 9 and 34 of the Election Petition Rules 1954.

“As a result of the invalidity of the appointment of the advocates by the petitioner, there is no valid election petition filed and served by the purported petitioner’s advocates,” she argued.

Rina also contended that the election petition should be struck out as it erroneously stated double dates for the Sabah polls.

She claimed that the petition had stated both Sept 22, 2020, and Sept 26, 2020, as the polling dates instead of only stating Sept 26. - Mkini