Sanglang seat goes to PAS

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court here declared PAS candidate Hashim Jasin (pic) as the rightful winner of the Sanglang state seat after it fell vacant for three months following a High Court order.

Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Alaudin Mohd Sheriff and Federal Court judges Datuk Arifin Zakaria and Datuk Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin unanimously declared Hashim as the duly elected Sanglang state assemblyman after allowing his appeal.

They also held that Abdullah Hassan of the Barisan Nasional, who won the seat in the March 8 general election, was not the elected state assemblyman of Sanglang.

The Kangar High Court on June 18 declared the seat vacant after quashing Hashim’s petition to declare him the winner.

Election judge Datuk Zainal Adzam Abdul Ghani, in his judgment, said the court had no jurisdiction to declare Hashim as the assemblyman for the seat as Section 35(c) of the Election Offences Act 1954, which empowers the Election Court to make such declarations, was abolished in 2003.

He left it to the Election Com­mission (EC) to decide whether a by-election should be held and when to hold it.

Hashim, who is the Perlis PAS commissioner, then appealed to the Federal Court.

In the election, Abdullah won the seat with a 149-vote majority after polling 3,384 votes while Hashim received 3,235 votes.

Hashim filed his petition on April 24 seeking to nullify the election result for the Sanglang state seat on grounds that the decision was contrary to the figures stated on Form 14 which showed that he (Hashim) had won with a 47-vote majority after garnering 3,333 votes against Abdullah’s 3,286.

In another case Bernama reported that the Federal Court dismissed with cost Barisan Nasional candidate Wan Sagar Wan Embong’s petition against PAS’ Datuk Harun Taib for the Manir state seat.

Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Alaudin Mohamed Sheriff and Federal Court judges Datuk Arifin Zakaria and Datuk Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin unanimously affirmed the ruling of the High Court that Wan Sagar’s petition to nullify the Manir election result in Terengganu was defective.

They held that the corrupt practice allegedly committed by the agents of Harun as pleaded in Wan Sagar’s petition must be specific for him to succeed in his petition.

Meanwhile, in Alor Star, Hashim Jasin, who is also the Perlis PAS commissioner said:

“They all know I had won the state seat and the Election Council had declared the wrong winner.”