TTF: The Federal Court remitted three election petitions involving the Kimanis, Sipitang and Jasin parliamentary seats back to the Election Court for trial (see news item below).
Earlier, a five-man bench led by Chief Justice Chief Tan Sri Richard Malanjum unanimously decided to dismiss Mohamad Hasan’s appeal against the Election Court’s decision to declare his Rantau seat vacant.
Prior to that, on the 30th of November 2018, the Election Court declared the Cameron Highlands seat vacant after BN’s Dato’ Sivarraajh Chandran was accused of corrupt practices during the 14th general election (GE14).
See the pattern?
All seats are Barisan Nasional seats.
Now, if you’re thinking Mahathir is attempting to test the waters, you’re probably on the right track.
But if you’re thinking that he wants to rob the seats from BN, think again.
All he’s trying to do is decide what the ultimate game plan will be, i.e., whether UMNO will merge with PPBM or if PPBM MPs will eventually cross-over to UMNO.
That is yet another reason why he wants Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak to lead UMNO.
READ FULL DISCLOSURE HERE
He’s giving the former premier a helluva lot of press time to boost the latter’s popularity ratings.
The reason?
He wants to gauge if BN can perform better than it did in GE14 with Najib more or less in control despite all the corruption charges the former premier has been slapped with.
Should the coalition score better in two more polls, it would send a signal to Mahathir that the Malays are so pissed, they’re willing to compromise with anyone or anything that isn’t allied with the DAP.
Of course, this deduction takes the Chinese tendency to remain with the DAP as a given.
The bigger scores would start the ball rolling for Barisan Baru Nasional to be born, although, Mahathir will go ahead with a new coalition first before restructuring that coalition later to factor in Najib’s UMNO.
He knows, that at the end of the day, it would be easier to merge PPBM with UMNO as it would allow him to gain access to the remainder of UMNO’s assets, including those held by Najib’s proxies and nominees.
Basically, all he wants to do is determine if an UMNO-PPBM merger is a safe bet.
So don’t be too naive to think that the game plan is to rob seats from BN.
You need to have a criminal mind to understand Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the IQ of a devil to defeat him.
PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court here on Monday (Feb 18) remitted three election petitions involving the Kimanis, Sipitang and Jasin parliamentary seats back to the Election Court for trial.
Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, Datuk David Wong Dak Wah who chaired a five-man bench made the ruling after allowing an appeal by Karim Bujang, who is Parti Warisan Sabah’s candidate for the Kimanis parliamentary seat, to challenge the victory of former foreign minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman.
Justice Wong said the panel held that the appellant had complied with the Election Petition Rules 1954 in filing the election petition and ordered Anifah to pay costs of RM50,000 to Karim.
“We allow the appeal and set aside the order of the High Court (Election Court),” he said and set this Wednesday for mention of the case.
On Nov 19, 2018, the Election Court in Kota Kinabalu struck out Karim’s election petition against Anifah, the returning officer and the Election Commission after allowing Anifah’s application to strike out the petition.
The panel, which included Federal Court judges Datuk Alizatul Khair Osman Khairuddin, Datuk Rohana Yusuf, Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan unanimously made the ruling after hearing submissions by lawyers Ansari Abdullah and Tengku Ahmad Fuad Tengku Ahmad who were representing Anifah, and Chang who acted for Karim.
Anifah won the Kimanis constituency with a 156-vote majority in the three-cornered fight, securing 11,942 votes against Karim and Parti Harapan’s Jaafar Ismail, who garnered 11,786 votes and 1,300 votes respectively.
Meanwhile, another Federal Court bench ordered the election petition filed by Warisan candidate Noor Hayaty Mustapha to be remitted to the Election Court for trial.
Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop directed the petition to be heard before another Election Court judge and set Feb 25 for case management.
Noor Hayaty’s lawyer, Chung Jiun Dau said the apex court had allowed his client’s appeal to set aside the Election Court’s decision in striking out her election petition.
Justice Ahmad who presided over the appeal with Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Zaharah Ibrahim and Federal Court judges Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed, Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Tan Sri Idrus Harun, ordered Yamani Hafez Musa, the son of former Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman, to pay costs of RM50,000.
Yamani won the Sipitang parliamentary seat under the Barisan Nasional ticket with a 852-vote majority, defeating his rivals from Parti Warisan Sabah and Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah.
Lawyer Jeyan T.M. Marimuttu appeared for Yamani.
The Federal Court also returned the election petition filed by Pakatan Harapan candidate, Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan who contested the Jasin parliamentary seat in GE14 to the Election Court for trial.
A five-man bench led by Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum allowed Khairuddin’s appeal to remit the case for hearing of the merits before a new Election Court judge.
In October last year, the Election Court dismissed Khairuddin’s petition after allowing a preliminary objection raised by Barisan candidate Datuk Seri Ahmad Hamzah.
In allowing the appeal unanimously, Justice Malanjum said the court accepted the two grounds submitted by Khairuddin’s counsel, Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram.
The court agreed with Sri Ram that the petition was properly filed in the Election Court in Kuala Lumpur and that Khairuddin had pleaded sufficient particulars in his petition.
Justice Malanjum said, “We will write our full grounds later.” He set this Friday for mention of the case.
The Chief Justice also ordered Ahmad Hamzah to pay RM20,000 in costs.
Election Court judge Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali had dismissed Khairuddin’s petition on grounds that the petition should be filed at the Malacca High Court, the place where the election was held and not in the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
Khairuddin lost to Ahmad by 219 votes in GE14. Ahmad garnered 26,560 votes while Khairuddin received 26,341 votes and PAS candidate Abd Alim Shapie, 8,860 votes.
Khairuddin, the former Batu Kawan Umno vice-chief, filed the election petition in June last year under Section 34(C) of the Election Offences Act 1954.
He sought a declaration that the result for the Jasin parliamentary seat in GE14 was null and void, claiming that the BN politician was unlawfully elected and that a fresh election should be held.
Lawyer Datuk Wira Mohd Hafarizam Harun represented Ahmad, while lawyer Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin appeared for returning officer Zamrud Yahya and the Election Commission (EC).
Source:
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