PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has ordered for the Gua Musang election petition filed by Barisan Nasional to be sent back to the High Court for a full hearing of the merits.
A three-judge panel chaired by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Abdul Rahman Sebli allowed the appeal by Mohd Azmi Mahmood, who is a representative for Barisan’s candidate for Gua Musang, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, to set aside the High Court’s decision which struck out the election petition.
In the unanimous decision yesterday, Justice Abdul Rahman said the High Court had erred when it said the petition was filed out of time.
The panel was also satisfied that the petitioner had fulfilled the requirement under the rules of the Election Offences Act.
The court then ordered for the petition to go for a hearing before another judge and the case was fixed for mention on June 26 at the Kota Baru High Court.
The two other judges on the panel were Federal Court judges Justices Hasnah Mohammed Hashim and Nordin Hassan.
Mohd Azmi filed the election petition to nullify the results of the Gua Musang parliamentary seat in the 15th General Election (GE15), which was held on Nov 19 last year.The seat was won by PAS-Bersatu candidate Datuk Mohd Azizi Abu Naim, who defeated Tengku Razaleigh by a majority of 1,826 votes.
Meanwhile, the same Federal Court panel dismissed Putrajaya Umno division vice-chief Datuk Ahmad Faisal Abdul Karim’s appeal to remit another election petition, which was filed to challenge the GE15 results for the Putrajaya parliamentary seat, to the High Court for a full hearing.
This means that Bersatu vice-president Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin retained his position as Putrajaya MP.
In the decision, Justice Abdul Rahman said there was no merit in Ahmad Faisal’s appeal as the particulars pleaded by the petitioner in the petition lacked details.
The court ordered Ahmad Faisal to pay RM30,000 in costs.
Ahmad Faisal filed the election petition to challenge the GE15 results for the Putrajaya parliamentary seat which was won by Mohd Radzi, who defeated Putrajaya incumbent Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor of Barisan with a 2,310-vote majority.
Two separate High Courts have respectively struck out both election petitions after allowing the preliminary objections raised by Mohd Radzi and Mohd Azizi.
On Feb 26, the Kota Baru High Court struck out Mohd Azmi’s petition after ruling that the petition was filed out of the permitted time frame of 28 days as set out under the Election Offences Act.
On March 10, the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed Mohd Radzi’s preliminary objection to strike out the petition after ruling that Ahmad Faisal failed to prove that corrupt practices were committed by either Radzi or his agent.Lawyer Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun appeared for both Mohd Azmi and Ahmad Faisal while lawyer Yusfarizal Yussoff represented Mohd Azizi and Mohd Radzi.
