An arrest warrant has been issued by the Melaka election court against Akmal Zahin Zainal Zahir, the permanent chairman of Bersatu’s youth wing, Armada Nasional. The warrant was issued by High Court judge Datuk Abu Bakar Katar after Akmal Zahin failed to attend court proceedings related to the election petition case for the Masjid Tanah parliamentary seat. Akmal Zahin was supposed to testify regarding bribery allegations during the 15th General Election (GE15).
The court had received a video showing Akmal Zahin giving voters an envelope suspected to contain cash, which was submitted as evidence during the trial. Subsequently, an arrest warrant was also issued against Noor Hashimah Noordin, the former private secretary of Masjid Tanah MP Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsuddin, for failing to attend as a subpoena witness.
To ensure attendance, the elections court has scheduled a new date on Sept 11 for both witnesses to appear in court. The initial petition to nullify Mas Ermieyati’s victory in the Masjid Tanah parliamentary constituency was filed by Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Abdul Hakim Abdul on Feb 7. However, the court subsequently dismissed the petition after accepting the respondent’s preliminary objection.
In response, Abdul Hakim filed an appeal against this decision, which led to the Federal Court overturning the ruling on May 2. As a result, the election petition challenging the GE15 results for the Masjid Tanah parliamentary constituency was sent back to the High Courts for a full hearing on the merits.
Credit: The Star : News Feed
