PENDANG, April 29 — Pakatan Harapan’s candidates should have prepared better to prevent the multiple disqualifications yesterday, said Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s Wan Saiful Wan Jan.

The Pendang candidate also insisted that the rules worked against the pact’s hopeful, but did not explain why this was so.

Speaking at a press conference today, Wan Saiful said this did not change the fact that the PH pact now has a six-seat deficit before the race even begun.

“It was a loss, we should have been better prepared, I agree but the rules were also stacked against us,” said Wan Saiful.

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During Nomination Day yesterday, PKR’s Dr Mohd Hafidz Rizal Amran who was to contest in Kuala Balah, Kelantan and PPBM’s Yaakob Osman in Penaga, Penang were disqualified due to bankruptcy.

Another three had documentation issues including PKR’s Streram Sinnasamy who was disqualified in Rantau, Negri Sembilan to give Barisan Nasional (BN) its first win of GE14 via caretaker Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.

In Tawang, Kelantan Mohd Azihan Che Seman was disqualified as his MyKad did not have a Kelantan address while in Bukit Pasir, Johor PPBM candidate Pizi Jihat’s was dropped out due to unspecified problems with his paperwork.

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PKR’s vice-president Tian Chua was also disqualified in Batu after the returning officer cited the judgment on his RM2,000 fine imposed by the High Court in March as punishment for outraging the modesty of a police officer on duty.

“In Tian Chua’s case, the judgement said he can contest. Why did they change the rules at the last minute?” he asked, referring to the Election Commission.

The legality of the matter was never fully established as the law states that a candidate is disqualified if he has been fined “not less than RM2,000”.

Some interpret this to mean more than RM2,000, but others including the late Karpal Singh believe that a fine of RM2,000 is exactly enough to trigger the disqualification.

“In Negri Sembilan, in Streram’s case the important thing was that he could submit the form without going in but it was delayed before reaching him.

“I think it’s a case of where rules were being introduced and implemented to disadvantage us,” said Wan Saiful.

He added that some cases in Sabah also showed that BN had their own issues in some seats, but did not elaborate.

When asked if the mistakes will provide ammunition to PH’s rivals, he said it would not be the case in Kedah where all the pact’s candidates were nominated without issue.