The Election Commission (EC) said an objection raised against BN candidate for Muara Tuang Mohd Ali Mahmud during the nomination process were not entertained because it was untrue.

Mohd Ali is the youngest brother to Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

abdul aziz ec pc 060411 “There was an objection stating that the BN candidate did not submit his election expenses account (for the 2006 polls).

“When we checked at the EC office, there was indeed a statement. Thus, the objection was rejected,” said EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof ( left ) during a press conference at the EC headquarters in Kuching today.

It was widely claimed on the Internet that the returning officer for the seat had stalled the announcement of the candidate following the raising of the objection.

“Observed PBB candidate Ali Mahmud hastily out of nomination room. Perhaps to call Taib/SPR for help! All waiting out of room now! No news!” wrote PAS supreme council member Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin on Twitter.

A check with PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar later revealed that the objection raised against Mohd Ali was rejected and the returning officer announced a straight fight against PAS’ Noraini Hamzah.

At one point after nominations closed, there were also widely circulated claims that Noraini had won the seat uncontested.

Numerous records achieved

Abdul Aziz also revealed that this election scored several firsts, including the fact that this is the first time that all 71 seats will be contested.

“This is the first time every seat is contested. This shows that democracy is thriving,” he said.

azlan A total of 213 will stand as candidates, which include 41 Independents and 16 female candidates. These numbers are all new records.

He added that there were 32 objections in which only one was accepted, in the Kakus seat involving a Sarawak National Party (Snap) candidate.

“The candidate, the proposer and the seconder, did not sign the nomination papers,” said Abdul Aziz when explaining the rejection of the nomination papers.

Multi-corner fights

He also revealed that almost two-thirds or 44 of the71 seats would see multi-corner fights, up from 13 in 2006.

At this point, there are 23 three-corner fights, 17 four-corner fights, five two-corner and two five-corner fights and two six-corner fights.

The five-corner fights will happen in Ngemah and Jepak, while the six-corner contests will be in Belaga and Balai Ringing.

Some of these multi-corner fights might fizzle out eventually should any of the candidates decide to withdraw. The deadline to do so is 11.59pm on April 9.

Abdul Aziz also provided the breakdown of women candidates for each party, which showed that PAS had the highest ratio of female candidates (two out of five) while BN had the lowest (four out of 71).

Snap did not field a single female candidate. Both DAP and PKR fielded four female candidates each.

Additional reporting by Jimadie Shah Othman