FORMER Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has filed a petition challenging the outcome of the polls for the parliamentary seat in the 15th general election (GE15).
According to a report published on Harian Metro, the petition was filed by Mohd Azmi Mahmood on Jan 3 on behalf of the UMNO veteran through the latter’s lawyers Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun, Datuk Abu Bakar Isa Ramat, Mohamed Baharudeen Mohamed Ariff, Norhazira Abu Haiyan dan Muhammad Amin Othman.
The petition named Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Gua Musang MP Datuk Mohd Azizi Abu Naim, returning officer Ab Fattah Hasbullah, and the Election Commission (EC) as respondents.
Mohamed Baharudeen said the petition seeks for the results of the Gua Musang parliamentary seat election to be declared invalid, and for the EC to call for a by-election for the seat.
He also said the petition was filed to challenge the result of GE15 for the Gua Musang parliamentary seat which he alleged was involved in money politics.
“Our client claims that money was paid out to some voters in return for their ballots, and several boxes of votes from certain voting centres were unaccounted for,” Mohamed Baharudeen was reported as saying by the news portal.
The management of the case was read out for the first time before the Deputy Registrar of the Kota Bharu High Court, Nik Habri Muhamad, at the Kota Bharu High Court on Thursday, while the next case management has been fixed for Jan 25.
In GE15, Tengku Razaleigh – better known as Ku Li – failed to defend the Gua Musang parliamentary seat for the 12th term, when he unexpectedly lost to Bersatu’s Mohd Azizi, who contested under a PAS ticket.
Azizi won with a slim majority of 163 votes to garner 21,826 votes, while Tengku Razaleigh received 21,663 votes. – Jan 13, 2023
Main photo credit: The Star
