Pribumi files seven election petitions

PETALING JAYA: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia has filed seven election petitions to challenge the results in four parliamentary seats and three states seats in the 14th General Election.

The four parliamentary seats are Tasek Gelugor, Jempol, Tapah and Bagan Serai, while the state seats are Lubok Merbau and Changkat Jong in Perak, and Kahang in Johor.

All seven election petitions were filed on behalf of seven Pribumi members who had contested under the PKR logo and lost in the May 9 election.

"Said petitions were filed by our team of lawyers in each state," said Pribumi legal bureau secretary Mior Nor Haidir Suhaimi in a statement Thursday.

He said that the petitions were being filed on these grounds: rules to ensure fair conduct during elections were not met; there were election offences by the respondents named within the petition; and the failure of the Election Commission to ensure a clean voting process.

"The Pribumi legal bureau, in continuing to uphold the rule of law advocated by the chairman of the party (Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad), will carry on to attend to said petitions in the courts," said Mior.

"(Pribumi) hopes to have the decision in favour of all petitioners with the sole objective to ensure that by-elections are held soonest to further strengthen Pakatan Harapan's grip on national and state politics," he said.

Pribumi lost by slim margins in many of these seats: By 67 votes in Changkat Jong, 81 votes in Tasek Gelugor, 614 votes in Tapah, 729 votes in Lubok Merbau, 1,631 votes in Jempol and 2,861 votes in Kahang.

In Bagan Serai, Pribumi lost to Umno by 4,233 votes. However, Bagan Serai Umno candidate Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali only won by 172 votes over the PAS candidate.