THE decision by the PAS leadership not to contest the election court’s decision to nullify its victory in the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary election confirms the existence of bribery and vote buying in the constituency, claimed Nurul Izzah Anwar.
Speaking at a Malaysia Madani roadshow at Bukit Selambau, Kedah, during the weekend, the former Permatang Pauh MP said while Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) were unable to defend several of their stronghold seats during the 15th General Election (GE15), Perikatan Nasional (PN) attributed their victory to several reasons.
“(During the last GE), it was not only Permatang Pauh … we were also unable to defend Merbok and Kepala Batas. They gave plenty of theories (as to why they won), reasons A, B, and C but today, PAS’ leadership failed to defend their loss in court,” the PKR vice-president hit out.
“The election court’s decision to nullify PAS’ victory in Kuala Terengganu only proves that corruption and vote buying did happen. This is why they won the seat.”
Recall that Nurul herself failed to defend her ‘family’s fortress’ of Permatang Pauh during GE15 following her shock defeat to PAS’ Muhammad Fawwaz Mohamad Jan with a majority of 5,272 votes.
On June 27, the Terengganu Election Court nullified the victory of Datuk Ahmad Amzad Hashim who represented PAS in the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat during GE15 following allegations of vote-buying.
High Court judge Datuk Seri Mohd Firuz Jaffril who sat as an Election Court judge ruled that the petitioner – Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Mohd Zubir Embong – had successfully proved beyond reasonable doubt that there was an element of bribery during the election campaign.
According to state UMNO chief Datuk Seri Ahmad Said, among the points raised in the petition were allegations that PAS had bribed voters by distributing financial aid from the state government through the i-Pencen, i-Belia and i-Siswa initiatives between Nov 15 and 17 last year which was just a few days before GE15.
Ahmad Amzad had won the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat in GE15 with a majority of 40,907 votes, defeating three other challengers, including Mohd Zubir.
Interestingly, however, he Kuala Terengganu High Court dismissed an UMNO petition against PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang for bribing voters during the run-up to the national polling day on Nov 19.
In Hadi’s case, Terengganu High Court judge Datuk Hassan Abdul Ghani who sat as an Election Court judge ruled that UMNO candidate Jasmira Othman had failed to raise reasonable doubt and dismissed the case. Jasmira was further ordered to pay Hadi RM50,000 in costs.
Recall that Terengganu UMNO had on Jan 3 filed a petition s per the Election Offences Act 1954 to annul the results for the Kuala Terengganu, Marang and Kemaman parliamentary seats in GE15. – July 10, 2023
Main pic credit: Borneo Post
