Court strikes off Suka Menanti election petition, affirms PN's win

ALOR SETAR: The Election Court here today struck out a petition filed by state PKR information chief Datuk Zamri Yusuf to challenge the election result of the Suka Menanti state constituency on Aug 12.

High Court judge Quay Chew Soon allowed the preliminary objections of the two respondents, namely the constituency Returning Officer and the Election Commission (EC) against the election petition, affirming Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Dzowahir Ab Ghani's victory in the seat.

Lawyer Dr Mohamed Sofee Razak, representing Zamri, when contacted said the court also ordered Zamri to pay costs amounting to RM15,000.

The respondents were represented by Senior Federal Counsels Ahmad Hanir Hambaly, Sallehuddin Ali and Nur Idayu Amir.

In the straight-fight contest, Dzowahir won with an 8,245 vote majority after securing 18,396 votes while Zamri, who was the Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate, obtained 10,151 votes.

The election petition was filed on Sept 18 on the grounds that there were doubts, errors and discrepancies in the tallying of votes in 18 of the Form 14 documents, and that these had a significant impact on the election results.

-- BERNAMA