Apex court orders full trial in Gua Musang election petition

The Federal Court today sent back the Gua Musang election petition filed by Barisan Nasional (BN) to the High Court for a full hearing of the merits.

Federal Court three-member panel led by chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli allowed the appeal by Mohd Azmi Mahmood, a representative for BN candidate Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, to set aside the High Court's decision which struck out the election petition.

The court also ordered the petition to go for a full hearing before another judge and fixed June 26 for mention of the case at the Kota Bahru High Court.

In the court's unanimous decision, justice Abdul Rahman said the High Court judge had erred when he decided that the petition was filed out of time.

He also said the court was satisfied that the petitioner (Mohd Azmi) had fulfilled the requirement under the rules of the Election Offences Act 1954.

The other two judges were Federal Court judges Hasnah Mohammed Hashim and Nordin Hassan.

Mohd Azmi filed the petition, in a bid to nullify the 15the general election (GE15) results for the Gua Musang parliamentary seat which was won by PAS-Bersatu candidate Datuk Mohd Azizi Abu Naim who defeated Tengku Razaleigh by a majority of 1,826 votes.

The GE15 was held on Nov 19 last year.

Meanwhile, the same Federal Court panel today dismissed Putrajaya Umno division vice-chief Ahmad Faisal Abdul Karim's appeal to remit back the election petition, which was filed to challenge the GE15 results for the Putrajaya parliamentary seat, to the High Court for a full hearing.

Following the court's decision, Bersatu vice-president Mohd Radzi Md Jidin retained his position as Putrajaya MP.

Justice Abdul Rahman said there was no merit in Ahmad Faisal's appeal as particulars pleaded by the petitioner in the petition lack details. He ordered Ahmad Faisal to pay RM30,000 in legal costs.

Ahmad Faisal filed the election petition to challenge the GE15 results for the Putrajaya parliamentary constituency seat which was won by Mohd Radzi.

Mohd Radzi defeated Putrajaya four-term incumbent Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor of BN with a 2,310-vote majority in a six-cornered fight.

Two separate High Courts have respectively struck out both election petitions after allowing the preliminary objections raised by Mohd Radzi and Mohd Azizi. 

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.

Earlier on Feb 26, the Kota Bahru 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.

Lawyer Wira Mohd Hafarizam Harun appeared for both Mohd Azmi and Ahmad Faisal while counsel Yusfarizal Yussoff represented Mohd Azizi and Mohd Radzi.