GEORGE TOWN, July 24- The Election Court here Tuesday dismissed with costs, two petitions by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) GE13 candidates and affirmed the Barisan Nasional (BN)’s victories in the Balik Pulau parliamentary and Teluk Bahang state constituencies.
Justice Hadhariah Syed Ismail dismissed the petitions on the grounds that the petitioners had failed to satisfy regulation 15 of the Election Petition Rules 1954.
In regard to Balik Pulau, Hadhariah ordered Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik to pay RM40,000 to BN Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya, the Balik Pulau election officer and the Election Commission (EC), as the first to third respondents respectively.
For Teluk Bahang, the court ordered Datuk Abdul Halim Hussain to pay RM10,000 costs to BN Assemblyman Datuk Shah Haedan Ayoob Hussain Shah, the Teluk Bahang election officer and the EC, as the first to third respondents respectively.
Dr Hilmi who is also Health deputy minister defeated Muhammad Bakhtiar with a majority of 1,539 votes while Shah Haedan defeated Abdul Halim with a majority of 801 votes.
The BN was represented by counsel Abu Bakar As-Sidek, Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin and Syed Faisal Syed Abdullah while the second and third respondents, by counsel L. Chandra Devi.
Muhammad Bakhtiar was represented by counsel Murali Ram while Abdul Halim, by counsel Datuk C.V. Prabhakaran and S. Raveetharan.
– BERNAMA
