Court dismisses Labis election petition filed by DAP

SHAH ALAM: The Election Court here dismissed a petition filed by DAP candidate S. Ramakrishnan over the Labis parliamentary seat.

Justice Suraya Othman made the order after allowing a preliminary objection raised by Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin who acted for first respondent Datuk Chua Tee Yong.

Chua, the son of MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, won the seat by 353 votes in the 13th general election last May.

Ramakrishnan had also named the area's returning officer (Muzaldin Mohamed) and the Election Commission as the second and third respondents respectively.

Among the reasons for the dismissal was the petitioner's non-compliance with Rule 3 and 9 of the Election Petition Rules 1954.

"It is stated under Rule 3 and 9 that the representation must be done by the petitioner and not his advocates. The rule is clear.

"Since representation here is not done by the petitioner himself, there is no compliance to Rule 3 and 9," she said.

Justice Suraya further said most of the allegations in the petition were of criminal nature.

"Unless you have very clear evidence of fraud, then the court should not entertain it. These are the sort of allegations that if one is found guilty, one must be convicted in a criminal court," she said.

On the issue of hostility in articles published in The Star and Utusan Malaysia as claimed in the petition, the judge said while the charge was framed rather correctly, the petitioner has failed to state how the articles affected the results of the election.

The court then ordered for the the petitioner to pay RM20,000 to Chua and RM10,000 each to the returning officer and the commission.

Counsels Malik Imtiaz Sarwar and Gobind Singh Deo represented Ramakrishnan while S. Narkunavathy represented the returning officer and the commission.