Court strikes out BN-Umno candidate's Kukusan election petition

 

Warisan's Kukusan assemblyperson Rina Jainal succeeded in striking out an election petition by BN-Umno candidate Chaya Sulaiman.

The Election Court in Tawau, Sabah, allowed Rina’s striking-out application during proceedings conducted online via Zoom two days ago.

Through the election petition filed on Oct 19 last year, Chaya claimed that bribery was reasonably the cause of how Rina wrested the Kukusan seat with a mere 10-vote majority in the 2020 Sabah state election

However, through the striking-out bid dated Nov 16 last year, Rina claimed, among others, that the election petition failed to provide sufficient particulars regarding the bribery allegation.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, Rina’s counsel Raymond Guok confirmed the outcome of the online hearing between the parties and the Election Court two days ago.

“The decision was delivered by the High Court judge and it was ruled that the election petition is to be struck out with cost,” he said.

The lawyer added that parties are still waiting for the full judgment from the court so that they could go through the detailed grounds for the decision.

Counsel Mohd Azhier Farhan Arisin appeared for Chaya.

In a posting on her Facebook page, Rina welcomed the decision of the Election Court.

“Alhamdulillah, we won. The results of the postal vote was disappointing; however, it was public votes that mengangkat kita (elevated us).

“Even though the record (voting) was among the smallest majority, have faith in rezeki (good fortune), have faith in Ilahi (Allah). That’s how huge it is,” she said.

Malaysiakini is attempting to reach out to Chaya’s legal team from Messrs Azhier Arisin & Co regarding the court decision.

Chaya Sulaiman

In the state election on Sept 26 last year, 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.

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. - Mkini