Kota Kinabalu: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) filed four election petitions in the High Court, here, Tuesday seeking orders to nullify Barisan Nasional's victory in the Tuaran and Kota Belud parliamentary seats as well as the Petagas and Inanam State seats.
Lim Ching Ping, who was the election agent for Sabah PKR head and candidate for the Tuaran MP seat Haji Ansari Abdullah, is seeking an order to nullify the election of Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Bumburing.
He named Bumburing and the Returning Officer Awang Shamsi Haji Jamih as the first and second respondents, respectively.
Bumburing, who is Upko Deputy President, won the seat after he garnered 17,645 votes against the 6,622 votes polled by Ansari. Independent candidate Anjin Gagah only managed 879 votes.
Askin Dung, a PKR member and voter in Kota Belud, is seeking a declaration that BN's Datuk Haji Abdul Rahman Dahlan was not duly elected for the Kota Belud MP seat.
He named Rahman and the Returning Officer Mohd Najib Muntok as the first and second respondents, respectively.
Rahman won the seat with a 3,020 votes majority after polling 17,842 votes compared to the 14,822 votes obtained by PKR's Saidil Simoi.
Defeated PKR candidate for Petagas Salleh Tiaseh filed his petition which sought a court declaration that BN candidate Datuk Haji Yahya Hussin was not duly elected or returned and that the said election was void.
In a straight fight for the Petagas seat Yahya, now a Deputy Chief Minister, won after polling 6,700 votes against the 3,132 garnered by Salleh.
Salleh named the Returning Officer Haji Hashim Sintol and Yahya as the first and second respondent respectively.
The petition for the Inanam seat was filed by defeated PKR candidate Danial John Jambun, seeking a declaration to nullify the victory of BN's candidate Johnny Goh Chin Lok.
All the petitioners, among others, had cited almost the same grounds for seeking court orders to nullify the election of the BN candidates.
They claimed that the BN candidates or their respective agents had distributed money to students of schools in their constituencies under the Poor Student Trust Fund Group.
They alleged that in distributing the money, the candidates or their agents called on the student parents to support BN on polling day.
The petitioners claimed that distributing the money was in contravention to Section 10(a) of the Election Offences Act 1954.
The sole non-party candidate who also filed a petition in the High Court Tuesday, was Independent Japiril Suhaimin, 45, who lost in Kundasang. His lawyer Arthur Bonnie submitted the petition.
He named BN candidate Dr Joachim Gunsalam and Returning Officer Siriman MF Nasir, as the first and second respondents, respectively.
In the election, Dr Gunsalam won the seat when he polled 3,597 votes while Japiril garnered 1,791 votes. Karim who was Parti Keadilan Rakyat candidate garnered 1,180 votes.
Japiril is seeking a court declaration that Dr Gunsalam was not duly elected and/or ought to have not been returned in the election. He is seeking the court to declare him the winner.
Among the grounds that Japiril was relying in his petition were that the Dr Gunsalam's conducts during the campaign period amount to corrupt practice that was in contravention of Section 11© of the Election Offences Act 1954.
He claimed that at several villages and schools in Kundasang, Dr Joachim or his agents had distributed money to poor students under the Poor Students Group Trust Fund.
Japiril further claimed that before distributing the money, Dr Gunsalam would called on parents of the students to vote for him.
He also claimed that the Returning Officer had also called on the voters in Kundasang in one function to vote for the BN candidate as his position as the District Officer of Ranau would be affected if BN lost in the election.
In SANDAKAN, another Independent candidate Ahdah Sulaiman filed a 12-page election petition at the Sandakan High Court against Sukau BN candidate Saddi Abdu Rahman for alleged corrupt practice during the recent election.
He claimed the respondent, Saddi had handed out cash to voters during polling so that they vote for him.
He gave three names - Arbain Kadium, Medu A. Gapar and Asnah Selamat - who he claimed had been given cash of RM50 each as inducement to vote for Saddi. Ahdah claimed that there had been two others who had also distributed cash to the voters.
He said that he filed the petition because he believed that Saddi had committed illegal practice under Section 32 © of the Election Offences Act 1954 either with his knowledge or consent or by the respondent's agents.
The Sukau constituency saw an eight-cornered contest in the election with Saddi the eventual winner with 3,273 votes.
Ahdah polled 1,171 votes while Awang @ Pg Roslan (Bersekutu), 85, Imran Ibrahim of PAS, 76, Jakariah Janit (Independent), 86, Jahran Gani (Independent), 57, Abdul Gani Kosui (Independent), 41 and Yusof Nasir (Independent), 19.
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