PUTRAJAYA, Sept 25- The election petition appeal for the Machang parliamentary seat in Kelantan will be the first case to be heard by the Federal Court here today.
An officer with the Chief Registrar of the Apex Court confirmed that the hearing would be followed by an appeal for the Selinsing state assembly seat.
The officer said, so far, out of the 58 election petitions filed in the peninsula, only 22 were filed for appeal by the respective political parties.
On July 16, the Kota Baru Election Court had dismissed PKR candidate Wan Zawawi Wan Ismail’s petition on the grounds that the petitioner had failed to comply with provisions under the Election Petition Rules 1954, on the eligibility of his counsel to represent him in the hearing of the petition.
Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub, who is also Machang Umno division chief, beat Wan Zawawi by 805 votes, to win the Machang parliamentary seat.
In a related development, co-counsel Gene Anand Vendargon, acting for PAS in the election petition appeal for five state seats in Perak, said appeal for Pasir Panjang and Manong would be heard on Oct 24.
Meanwhile, the hearing for Selama and Lebuk Merbau was set for Nov 13.
Anand said appeal for the Rungkup state seat was still at the management case stage and expected it to be heard before the end of November.
PAS lost the seats with a marginal number of votes of between 100 to 500.
Meanwhile, lawyer Gobind Singh Deo, who represented DAP in two election petitions for the Labis and Cameron Highlands parliamentary seats, confirmed that the party had not intended to pursue the petitions further.
– BERNAMA
