GE15 : Lawyer hopes to push for improvements in sexual offence laws if he wins

DUNGUN: Independent candidate for the Dungun parliamentary seat, lawyer Ghazali Ismail hopes to represent the people so that he could push for the Evidence Act 1950 to be reviewed and improved.

Ghazali said he is taking a huge gamble in the 15th general election (GE15) to ensure a seat in parliament as he feels strongly that individuals charged with sexual crimes, especially obscenity cases, must be given a fair trial and protected from injustice.

The 49-year-old legal practitioner said that the requirement of supporting evidence as per the provisions under Section 133A of the Evidence Act 1950 should also be extended to obscenity crime cases.

He added that supporting evidence in obscenity crime cases must be independent evidence, not just taken from the complainant's (victim's) testimony so that there is no victimisation of the accused.

"If it's a rape case, there are clear evidence such as testimony from a medical doctor, but for obscenity cases it is difficult as they are based on the complainant's testimony," he told Bernama recently.

Meanwhile Noraisah Hassan, 32, who is the sole female candidate in Terengganu, said she wants to see to young women's economic empowerment, especially in entrepreneurship, if given the people's mandate on Nov 19.

Carrying the tagline #DungunBeraniMengubah Noraisah said she is ready to serve the community and is confident that her experience as a successful entrepreneur will be able to encourage women in the constituency area to improve their living standards.

She said the national leadership is in need of a youthful aura and was working hard to attract young voters to support her.

The Pejuang candidate who is also running for the Dungun parliamentary seat, said her strong desire to bring reforms in the political arena drove her to contest in GE15.

"I am really interested in politics. I decided to join Pejuang because it is something new and the people are aware that the other 'older' parties are riddled with problems and so forth," she said.

Realising that the party she represents lacks a cohesive machinery, Noraisah chose to campaign on social media, in addition to using conventional methods such as distributing leaflets and visiting the local community.

Despite knowing the incumbent Wan Hassan Mohd Ramli from PAS would be her biggest challenge, Noraisah remains optimistic that she will be able to stand out and gain the support of the people of Dungun.

In GE15, the Dungun parliamentary seat will be a tussle between five candidates namely Ghazali, Noraisah, Wan Hassan, Nurhisam Johari of Barisan Nasional (BN) and Datuk Dr Mohd Johari Mohamad (PH-PKR).

In the last election Wan Hassan won the seat with a majority of 13,119 votes, defeating Datuk Din Adam representing BN and Abd Rahman Yusof of PKR

-- BERNAMA