KOTA BAHARU, Aug 13- PAS Monday filed a second preliminary objection against the petitions filed by the Barisan Nasional (BN) over the results for the Bachok parliamentary and Jelawat state seats.
The objection was presented by counsel Mohamed Hanipa Maidin here today prior to the commencement of the nine-day petition proceedings before Judge Datuk Zamani Abdul Rahim.
Mohamed Hanipa submitted that yesterday
‘s objection contained issues which had not been raised at the preliminary objections filed on July 10.
On July 10, Zamani had dismissed both the preliminary objections and ordered the defendants, PAS, to pay RM30,000 in cost for each objection.
Mohamed Hanipa said the first respondent was disputing the locus standi of the petitioners’ (BN) lawyers for failing to adhere to the mandatory Rule 9 to be read with Rule 34 of the Election Petition Rules 1954.
The lawyers in question are Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun, Abu Bakar As-sidek Mohd Sidek, Raihanah Ashriqin Ariffin, Nor Azli Ahamed, Syed Faisal Syed Abdullah and Badrul Hisham Abd Wahap.
Among the other issues raised were that under Section 34(b) of the Election Offences Act 1954 the petitioners did not have the capacity to file the petitions and they had failed to serve the affidavit according to Rule 15(4) of the Election Petition Rules 1954.
BN candidate Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussin lost in Bachok to PAS’ Ahmad Marzuk Shaary by 201 votes while his compatriot Datuk Ilias Husain was defeated by Abdul Aziz Kadir of PAS in Jelawat by just 102 votes.
Awang Adek filed the petition for the Bachok parliamentary seat while Ilias filed for the Jelawat state seat.
Counsel Mohd Ilias Mohd Noor who appeared for the petitioners argued that the issues had been raised in the earlier preliminary objection and applied to the court to dismiss them with RM80,000 in cost.
Zamani fixed Aug 18 to announce his decision on the matter.
– BERNAMA
