Apex court dismisses BN appeal to reinstate Gua Musang election petition, Azizi remains MP

PUTRAJAYA: The 15th General Election (GE15) result for the Gua Musang parliamentary seat, which was won by Perikatan Nasional’s Mohd Azizi Abu Naim, stands after Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s representative Mohd Azmi Mahmood failed to reinstate his election petition to challenge the election results for that constituency.

A Federal Court three-person panel of judges led by Court of Appeal president Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim struck out Mohd Azmi’s appeal and ordered him to pay RM30,000 in costs.

The two other judges on the panel were Federal Court judges Rhodzariah Bujang and Abu Bakar Jais.

In delivering the court’s unanimous decision, Justice Abang Iskandar said there was merit in the preliminary objection raised by Mohd Azizi’s lawyer Yusfarizal Yussoff.

Mohd Azmi was appealing against the High Court decision on Sept 5 this year which struck out his election petition after he (Mohd Azmi) fired his team of lawyers.

Mohd Azmi filed the petition on behalf of Tengku Razaleigh to nullify the Gua Musang election result for the Gua Musang parliamentary seat based on among others, allegations of bribery.

Tengku Razaleigh lost to Mohd Azizi by just 163 votes. Mohd Azizi secured 21,826 votes, while Tengku Razaleigh had garnered 21,663 votes.

Yusfarizal raised a preliminary objection saying that Mohd Azmi’s appeal was incompetent as he (Mohd Azmi) had used the wrong procedure in his attempt to set aside the High Court’s decision.

He said Mohd Azmi should go back to the High Court to file an application to reinstate his election petition and not file an appeal to the Federal Court.

Mohd Azmi’s lawyer Datuk Mohamad Zubairy Hussain said his client should be allowed to appeal against the High Court’s decision.

He claimed that his client is appealing with regard to the non-compliance of procedure by the High Court judge in striking out the election petition. - Bernama