KOTA KINABALU: The election petition appeals for the Putatan, Tuaran and Tenom parliamentary constituencies were dismissed by the Federal Court here on Thursday (Aug 24).
The court also ordered RM50,000 in costs to be paid to each Member of Parliament who were named as the first respondents in their cases.
These MPs are Datuk Shahelmey Yahya (Putatan MP), Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau (Tuaran MP) and Riduan Rubin (Tenom MP).
In the first case, Pakatan Harapan's Putatan candidate Awang Husaini Sahari had filed the election petition on Dec 29 last year against Shahelmey who contested under Barisan Nasional ticket during the 15th general elections (GE15).
Awang Husaini had lost by 124 votes in the four-cornered contest in GE15, and Shahelmey won the seat after gaining 16,234 votes while Husaini garnered 16,110 votes.
He named the Returning Officer (RO) and the Election Commission (EC) as the second and third respondents.
Shahelmey earlier this year filed the preliminary objection to strike out Awang's election petition which was granted by the Election Court on March 10, and Awang Husaini then appealed against the decision.
In the second case, PBS Tuaran candidate Datuk Joniston Bangkuai failed his appeal against Pakatan Harapan’s Tangau who won the parliamentary seat with a 233-vote majority.
The Tuaran returning officer and the EC were named the second and third respondents by Bangkuai.
In GE15, Tangau had won with 24,943 votes in a six-cornered fight, and Bangkuai had come in second with 24,710 votes,
Tangau had retained the Tuaran seat on March 23 after the election petition filed against him was dismissed by the Election Court. Bangkuai then appealed against the decision.
Meanwhile, Datuk Peter Anthony whose election petition was struck out by the Election Court in March this year, also failed in his appeal against independent Riduan.
The Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) president whose nomination papers were rejected by the Tenom returning officer during GE15, had named the Tenom returning officer, EC chairman Tan Sri Ghani Salleh and the EC as the second, third and fourth respondents.
