PUTRAJAYA, July 30 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak dismissed today allegations that his government is behind the series of court decisions to strike out opposition-filed election petitions.

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had suggested yesterday that the move to dismiss most of the petitions filed by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) merely on technicalities may have been made under Putrajaya’s instruction, chiefly from Najib’s party Umno.

“We do not interfere. We must put faith in the courts. It was also the courts that freed Anwar Ibrahim so how can he not be confident towards the country’s judiciary system,” Najib (picture) told reporters after chairing a meeting with state leaders here.

Anwar had described the dismissal of some of the petitions as “frivolous” and “ridiculous”, insisting that every election petition must be accorded a full trial as a matter of public interest.

The head of 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 said.

The only three election petitions that have been allowed to go to trial thus far are only those filed by Umno in Kelantan, noted the PKR adviser.

Anwar warned that the move could further erode public confidence in the judiciary.

“The rakyat must perceive the judiciary as an independent institution. If they find, as in the case of these recent election petitions, that the courts are making decisions to simply maintain the electoral status quo, and appear to be acting under direction of a particular party, they will lose all faith in the judiciary,” harakahdaily.net, the online version of PAS’s organ, quoted him as saying.

The PKR adviser further 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.