PENANG, March 10 (Bernama) — Political parties wanting to protest against Saturday’s general election results will have to wait until the results are gazettted and file their petitions according to the procedures.
State Election Director Ahmad Shafee said that the election results were being verified before a report is submitted to the Election Commission (EC) for the gazetting process.
After the results have been gazetted, parties which contested in the election were given 21 days to file a petition, he said when contacted by Bernama.
“The court will decide whether there will be a trial,” he said.
He was commenting on the protest made by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) against the results in three state seats in Penang which it contested in, claiming that the returning officers had denied a recount based on an election procedure.
Penang PKR has lodged a police report disputing the results in Pulau Betong, Telok Bahang, and Sungai Acheh state seats where Barisan Nasional (BN) won by a majority of between 294 and 465 votes.
Ahmad said that two Independent candidates who were involved in three-cornered fights in Penang lost their deposits.
They were R.Ulaganathan who only obtained 311 votes in the Perai state seat where DAP’s P.Ramasamy won with 7,668 votes while BN’s L.Krishnan collected 2,492 votes.
Another Independent candidate, Badrul Zaman P.S. Md Zakariah, lost in the Jelutong parliamentary seat and Sungai Pinang state seat, when he received only 882 votes and 449 votes, respectively.
Jelutong parliamentary seat was won by DAP’s Ooi Chuan Aun who garnered 30,493 votes while BN’s Dr Thor Teong Gee (BN) polled 14,247 seats.
DAP’S Koid Teng Guan won the Sungai Pinang state seat when he obtained 8,305 votes while Looi Swee Cheang of BN collected 5,611 votes.