KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today said that the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat will be reserved for MIC.

The Bagan Datuk MP was asked in a press conference if BN would consider giving the seat to other party component members, after the Election Court declared the 14th general election (GE14) results for the federal seat previously won by MIC as null and void.

"That is MIC’s seat. We deeply respect the convention which we agreed upon.

"If the seats are those that have already been allocated to our component party friends, then we will give the candidates our trust yet again,” Zahid said.

"In this matter, I think the MIC president has yet to announce the candidate, but in the culture of politics, the MP who represented BN and won must be given the chance again,” he said adding that he leaves the matter to MIC president, Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran, to be deliberated.

On November 30, an Election Court declared the GE14 results for the Cameron Highlands federal seat as null and void, as MIC candidate Datuk C. Sivarraajh’s opponent DAP’s M. Manogaran had proven that there were corrupt practices in the form of money being given to induce voters there, to vote for the BN coalition that Sivarraajh was contesting under.

According to Malaysiakini, Sivarraajh insisted that he was not involved in dishing out money to Orang Asli voters, alleging that there were "agents” who actually did so.

Sivarraajh, who has been MP for Cameron Highlands for just over half a year now, confirmed he will be challenging the Election Court’s decision.

On June 4, Manogaran filed an election petition to challenge Sivarraajh’s May 9 win due to the alleged buying of votes by the latter.

Manogaran had in his election petition reportedly claimed that Sivarraajh and the current Pahang mentri besar from Umno, Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, had given money to several Orang Asli village heads to be distributed to Orang Asli voters at sums ranging from RM30 to RM1,000 each.

On May 9, Sivarraajh won with a relatively slim majority of 597 votes with his 10,307 vote-haul in a five-cornered race, with Manogaran then being the candidate with the second highest vote-haul at 9,710 votes.