KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Barisan Nasional’s Kunak assemblyman Datuk Seri Anil Jeet Singh (pic) will keep his seat after an Election Court struck out a petition to nullify the result of the Nov 29 election for the constituency.
Election Court judge Justice Amelati Parnell struck out the case on Thursday (March 5) following preliminary objections raised by the Election Commission, Sabah state election officer, returning officer, and Anil as the first, second, third, and fourth respondents respectively.
Petitioner Md Bustan @ Industan Lumantang, among others, questioned the election's validity, claiming that several duplicate ballot papers were discovered during the counting process at one polling stream in SMK Kunak Jaya.
The petitioner contended that the existence of such duplicates raised concerns about the integrity of the ballot printing process and may have affected the reliability of the overall vote count.
Anil had filed preliminary objections to strike out the election petition on legal and procedural grounds, arguing that it failed to comply with several mandatory requirements under the Election Petition Rules 1954 and related laws.
The court also ordered the petitioner to pay RM10,000 in costs to the three respondents and RM20,000 in costs to Anil.
Anil, who is state Assistant Youth Development, Sports Advancement and Creative Economy Minister, polled 5,986 votes in a six-cornered fight to win by a majority of 2,118 votes.
