Court orders trial of Tasek Gelugor's election petition

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court today ordered the trial of an application filed by Marzuki Yahya, who had lost the seat of Tasek Gelugor's Parliament during the 14th general election by a slim majority of 81 votes, in spite of the decision of the Electoral Court to dismiss the case.

In a 4-1 majority decision, Chief Justice Richard Malanjum stated that the appeal was well-founded.

"The requirements of the settlement of the electoral petition have been met and this case should be the subject of a full trial," he said.

The other three majority judges were Malaya Zaharah Ibrahim Chief Justice, Sabah Chief Justice and Sarawak David Wong Dak Wah and Rohana Yusof.

The President of the Court of Appeal, Ahmad Maarop, was a dissident.

Marzuki lost the fight for the Tasek Gelugor headquarters against Barisan Nasional's Shabudin Yahaya.

He filed an election motion requesting the recount of 689 canceled votes and 297 postal votes not returned.

On 18 September, Election Judge Hashim Hamzah filed the case on the basis of Shabudin's preliminary objection and the fact that the motion omitted the "wrongs" committed by the Electoral Commission during the election. the election of Tasek Gelugor.

Hashim stated that Marzuki's petition should have been written in accordance with the guidelines of the 1958 Election Law.

Marzuki's lawyer, Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali, urged the court to hear Marzuki's representations, but EC counsel Marina Nasution argued that the motion should be dismissed as defective.

Hashim, in agreement with Marina, filed the case and ordered Marzuki to pay Shabudin a sum of RM10,000.

Shabudin was represented by Simon Tan, while Marzuki was represented by Rafique and Azlina Mehtab Mohd Ishaq.

Marzuki's motion, filed on June 12, had designated Shabudin as the first defendant, Tasek Gelugor's returning officer as the second defendant and the EC as the third defendant.

Marzuki had asked the court to consider a by-election for the Tasek Gelugor parliamentary seat and a recount, the number of votes won by the winning party being less than 4 per cent, as allowed by the 1981 settlement regulation. conduct of the elections.

Marzuki is now Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was appointed to this post after being sworn in on July 17.