SHAH ALAM, Aug 21- The Election Court today dismissed with costs a DAP candidate’s petition to annul the result for the Labis parliamentary in the 13th General Election (GE13), which was won by Datuk Chua Tee Yong from the Barisan Nasional (BN).
Judge Datuk Suraya Othman said in her judgment Tuesday that the petition for Labis filed by DAP candidate S. Ramakrishnan failed to comply to Rules 3 and 9 of the Election Petition Rules 1954.
“Representations must be done by the petitioner… this petition was not done by the petitioner and this does not comply to Rules 3 and 9 (of the Election Petition Rules), she said.
The rules require that the petition must be filed by the petitioner himself and not through third parties.
She also said the plaintiff failed to prove in court how articles produced by certain newspapers about him had affected the results of the election.
In GE13 held on May 5, Chua who garnered 37,714 votes won the Labis parliamentary seat by a majority 353 votes against Ramakrishnan.
Suraya also ordered Ramakrishnan to pay RM20,000 in costs to Chua who was the first respondent in the petition and RM10,000 each to the Returning Officer for the Labis seat and Election Commission,names as the second and third respondent.
She said the amount of costs should be higher than ordinary cases because the matter was urgent and judges were appointed just to hear the election case.
However, Ramakrishnan’s counsel Malik Imtiaz Sarwar and Gobind Singh Deo were against the higher cost imposed on their client.
At the proceedings today, Chua was represented by Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin while the RO and Election Commission were represented by S. Narkunavathy.
– BERNAMA
