The Federal Court in Kota Kinabalu has dismissed the election petition appeals for the Putatan, Tuaran, and Tenom parliamentary constituencies on August 24. The court has also ordered the payment of RM50,000 in costs to each Member of Parliament who were named as the first respondents in their respective cases. The named MPs are Datuk Shahelmey Yahya (Putatan MP), Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau (Tuaran MP), and Riduan Rubin (Tenom MP).
In the first case, Awang Husaini Sahari, the Pakatan Harapan’s Putatan candidate, had filed the election petition against Shahelmey, who contested under the Barisan Nasional ticket during the 15th general elections (GE15). Awang Husaini lost in the four-cornered contest with a margin of 124 votes, while Shahelmey won the seat with 16,234 votes. The Returning Officer (RO) and the Election Commission (EC) were named as the second and third respondents in this case.
Shahelmey filed the preliminary objection to strike out Awang’s election petition, which was granted by the Election Court on March 10. Awang Husaini subsequently appealed against this decision.
The second case involved the appeal of PBS Tuaran candidate Datuk Joniston Bangkuai against Pakatan Harapan’s Tangau, who won the parliamentary seat with a majority of 233 votes. The Tuaran returning officer and the EC were named as the second and third respondents by Bangkuai.
In GE15, Tangau emerged victorious with 24,943 votes in a six-cornered fight, whereas Bangkuai secured second place with 24,710 votes. Tangau managed to retain the Tuaran seat after an election petition against him was dismissed by the Election Court on March 23. Bangkuai subsequently appealed against this decision.
In another case, Datuk Peter Anthony’s appeal against independent Riduan was also unsuccessful. Anthony, the Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) president, had his nomination papers rejected by the Tenom returning officer during GE15. He named the Tenom returning officer, EC Chairman Tan Sri Ghani Salleh, and the EC as the second, third, and fourth respondents in his petition.
Credit: The Star : News Feed
