Election Court rejects petition on Tapah Parliamentary result

The Barisan Nasional (BN) retained its victory in the Tapah Parliamentary constituency after the Election Court here again rejected the petition filed by the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidate to nullify the result of the 13th general election (GE13) for the constituency with cost.

Judge Abdul Rahman Sebli, who made the decision, said the petition filed by K. Vasantha Kumar was defective and the facts explained were not proper.

In his judgement, Abdul Rahman said the petitioner claimed that there had been instances of bribery during GE13, but did not state in detail who had made the bribe.

The petition did not touch on the election result too by not explaining in detail how the defeat occurred, he said.

Thus, the court decided that the first respondent namely Datuk M. Saravanan from the BN was elected as the Member of Parliament for Tapah in a proper manner.

Abdul Rahman also ordered that the petitioner paid RM50,000 to Saravanan and RM30,000 each to the second respondent, namely the Returning Officer for the Tapah Parliamentary constituency, Razali Bakar and the third respondent, the Election Commission (EC).

Lawyer Abu Bakar As Sidiq led the counsels representing Saravanan while Senior Federal Counsel Alice Loke and Khairul Nizam Abu Bakar represented Razali and the EC.

On Dec 23, the Federal Court decided that the election petition for the Tapah Parliamentary seat be remitted to the Election Court to hear the merit of the case after allowing the election petition filed by the opposition.

Saravanan defeated Vasantha, and two Independent candidates Ridzuan Bani and Shaharuzzaman Bistamam with a majority of 7,927 votes for the Tapah Parliamentary seat.