KUALA LUMPUR, July 7 (Bernama) — The High Court here Monday dismissed with cost the petition against the election of Federal Territories Minister Datuk Zulhasnan Rafique as Member of Parliament for Setiawangsa.
Justice Datuk Alizatul Khair Osman Khairuddin said the petitioner — Ibrahim Yaacob of Parti Keadilan Rakyat who lost in the March 8 contest — had failed to comply with Rule 15 of the Election Petition Rules which required him to to personally serve the petition notice on Zulhasnan as the first respondent within 15 days.
Ibrahim also failed to comply with the requirement of Section 32(b) of the Election Offences Act 1954 because he did not state clearly which provisions of any written law had been breached which had affected the election result.
In the polls, Zulhasnan of Barisan Nasional retained the seat by beating Ibrahim by 8,134 votes. Ibrahim filed the petition on April 28 claiming breaches of Section 5 of the Election Offences Act 1954 with regard to postal votes.
Justice Alizatul threw the petition out after accepting Zulhasnan’s preliminary objection.