In landmark ruling, Election Court orders vote recount for Tasek Gelugor

GEORGE TOWN, Dec 21 — The Special Election Court today allowed an application for a recount of votes cast in the Tasek Gelugor parliamentary seat during the general election.

Judge Datuk Hashim Hamzah ordered that all copies of Form 14 for the federal seat be unsealed for scrutiny by a High Court senior assistant registrar.

“The breaking of the seal and opening of the 136 copies of Form 14 in the presence of lawyers for all parties involved will be held at the Penang High Court on January 2 next year,” he said.

The procedure will determine the precise number of votes received by each candidate who contested in the Tasek Gelugor seat.

Senator Datuk Marzuki Yahya had filed the election petition against the Tasek Gelugor election results but this was dismissed by the Special Election Court in September.

Marzuki, through lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali, appealed to the Federal Court, which overturned the earlier decision and ordered for the case to undergo a full trial before the Special Election Court.

Marzuki then applied for all copies of Form 14 to be opened for a recount before the court and in the presence of lawyers in the case.

Form 14 contains the tabulation of votes for each polling station. 

In this case, all copies of the document from three state constituencies under the Tasek Gelugor parliamentary constituency, namely Permatang Berangan, Sungai Dua and Telok Ayer Tawar, will be brought to court for scrutiny.

Muhammad Rafique said these will also be made available to the lawyers for scrutiny.  

“I believe this is the first time that such an exercise is being carried out in regards to an election petition,” he added.

Hashim then ordered all parties to be present in court on January 14 for mention of the case after the recount.

Marzuki initially filed an election petition to recount 689 spoilt votes and 297 unreturned (postal) votes for the Tasek Gelugor parliamentary seat which he lost by 81 votes in the general elections.

The deputy foreign minister named incumbent Datuk Shabudin Yahaya as the first respondent, the returning officer for Tasek Gelugor as the second respondent and the Malaysian Election Commission (EC) as the third respondent.

Shabudin won as an Umno candidate contesting under Barisan Nasional, but has since resigned from the party.