PETALING JAYA, July 29 — Every election petition must be accorded a full trial as a matter of public interest instead of being dismissed on technicalities, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim insisted today.

The head of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) noted that 10 election petitions by the informal pact have been dismissed so far; these include petitions on four federal seats and one state seat by PKR, and petitions on five state seats by PAS.

“The principle of a case being thrown out on mere technicality — whether it’s BN (Barisan Nasional) or Pakatan — is not acceptable,” Anwar told reporters at PKR’s headquarters here.

He noted that only three election petitions have been allowed to go to trial thus far, all of which were filed by Umno in Kelantan.

The three are petitions on the Bachok parliamentary constituency, as well as the Gaal and Jelawat state seats in the east coast state.

Anwar pointed out that the technicalities raised in the election petitions filed by PR for the Machang federal seat and Selising state seat, where they were struck off on the basis that the petitions were not served personally by the petitioners on the respondents, were “frivolous”.

“This is quite ridiculous when everyone understands that parties in court act through lawyers and do not go around trying to serve court documents themselves,” said the PKR de facto leader.

Anwar also criticised the high costs imposed by the court on petitioners after their petitions are struck off.

He noted that the PKR petitioner was ordered to pay RM120,000 in the Balik Pulau parliamentary constituency case after the petition was struck off, which he said did not fit the trend of costs awarded for similar civil litigation, such as RM5,000 to RM10,000 in the High Court and RM15,000 to RM20,000 in the Court of Appeal.

“Such high costs are oppressive bearing in mind the public interest nature of the litigation and invites the inference that there is a decided policy to inflict punitive costs to discourage petitions,” said Anwar.

“I call upon Chief Justice Tun Ariffin Zakaria to intervene to ensure that a more appropriate approach is taken towards awards of costs,” added the Permatang Pauh MP. “Cost orders should reflect the fact that election petitions are public interest litigation.”

BN candidate Dominic Lau for the Batu federal seat was also ordered to pay Batu MP Chua Tian Chang RM50,000 in costs after his election petition was struck off last Wednesday.