KOTA BARU, July 16 — The Election Court today dismissed with costs a petition brought by PKR to nullify the victory of the Barisan Nasional (BN) in the Machang parliamentary constituency in the 13^th general election on May 5.

Judge Datuk Zamani Abdul Rahim, in his ruling, said the petitioner had failed to comply with provisions under the Election Petition Rules 1954, and dismissed the petition with costs.

He ordered the petitioner to pay RM30,000 in costs to the first respondent, Machang MP Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub, and RM15,000 each to the second and third respondents, namely the returning officer and the Election Commission (EC), respectively.

In the general election, Ahmad Jazlan, the Machang Umno division chief, beat Wan Zawawi Wan Ismail of PKR by 805 votes.

Wan Zawawi had filed the petition.

Zamani explained that the petitioner had erred in that the notice of eligibility of counsel only allowed Hisham Fauzi to represent the petitioner and, secondly, the arguments did not conform to the rules. 

Last Wednesday, BN’s counsel Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun objected to the presence of three counsel, R. Sivarasa, Latheefa Koya and Muhammad Afiq Muhammad Noor, to represent the petitioner. Zamani allowed the objection.

At today’s proceedings, Mohd Hafarizam brought to Zamani’s attention Latheefa’s questioning of the judge’s decision in another proceedings via Twitter and cited it as contempt of court.

Zamani said the matter should be raised with the Bar Council and that he did not wish to get involved in any move of a political nature.

“My decisions are transparent,” he said. — Bernama