SHAH ALAM, Aug 20- The Election Court Monday dismissed the petition filed by Barisan Nasional’s (BN) candidate Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi to annul the results for the Batu Pahat parliamentary seat, which was won by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) at the 13th General Election.
Judge Datuk Suraya Othman dismissed the petition after hearing the preliminary objection by counsel Haliza Abdullah for the respondent and ordered RM20,000 in cost to him.
The respondent, Datuk Mohd Idris Jusi, won the seat by a majority of 1,732 votes in the May polls.
Suraya held that the petitioner had failed to plead on one of the issues raised in his preliminary objection that a treat hosted by Mohd Idris prior to the polling day was an offence under Section 11(1)(b) of Election Offences Act 1954.
She also ruled that the petitioner also failed to plead on the actual date of the advance polling date which was on April 30, but had just stated it as May 5.
“The advance voting date was not pleaded as required under Rule 4(1) and 4(4) of the Act,” ruled Suraya, stressing that it was a critical error by the petitioner.
In his petition, Mohd Puad, who was represented by Edmund Bon, named the PKR candidate as the only respondent.
Meanwhile, Suraya postponed the hearing of the Labis parliamentary seat petition to Tuesday afternoon, following the objection of Gobind Singh Deo, counsel for petitioner S.Ramakrishnan against senior federal counsel S. Narkunavathy’s application to raise a preliminary objection.
Narkunavathy raised an objection on behalf of the Election Commission and returning officer of the constituency.
Gobind told the court that during the case management, counsel for both respondents had not indicated a preliminary objection.
Ramakrishnan of DAP lost to BN candidate Datuk Chua Tee Yong by 353 votes.
-BERNAMA
