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Pakatan Rakyat will start filing 35 election petitions from today up to the deadline on Thursday, citing offences and irregularities in the 13th general election.

"This will involve an initial cost of RM500,000 and we will need to raise another RM1 million," PKR director of stategy Rafizi Ramli told a press conference in Petaling Jaya today.

PKR will be holding at least three fundraisers to come up with the extra million, while other components may have their own funding drives, he said.

NONE The money, Rafizi ( left ) explained, is for the initial RM15,000 deposit per election petition and possible costs at RM30,000 per petition filed, which must be paid to the defendant should a petition be struck out or the court battle is lost.

Much of the legal services to Pakatan will be on pro bono basis, thus saving the coalition some money.

Of the petitions, 25 will be over parliamentary seats while the rest involve state seats.

PKR will file 19 petitions for the 18 parliamentary seats of Merbok, Kulim Bandar Baru, Ketereh, Machang, Balik Pulau, Tapah, Bagan Datok, Sabak Bernam, Setiawangsa, Segamat, Ledang, Muar, Tebrau, Pasir Gudang, Kota Marudu, Beaufort, Pensiangan and Baram.

There are two petitions for Bagan Datok - one for allegations of spending over the allowed campaign budget, and another for other alleged offences.

Keeping up the public pressure

DAP will file petitions for the Cameron Highlands and Labis seats, and PAS for Sungai Besar, Titiwangsa, Pulai and Kuala Selangor.

The other 10 petitions are for state seats, and will be filed by both PAS and DAP.

Rafizi said that, while he is coordinating the petitions for PKR, lawyers Hanipah Maidin and Gobind Singh Deo are the coordinators for PAS and DAP respectively.

NONE Pakatan has alleged that massive fraud and irregularities had marred the May 5 polls.

It has vowed to maintain protests and keep up public pressure to force the BN-led federal government to acquiesce to election reforms.

In tandem with the election petitions and public pressure in the form of the 'Black 505' rallies, Pakatan also plans to file civil suits against the Election Commission (EC) three weeks from today, to keep up the legal challenges.

The suits will be filed against EC's alleged failure to implement indelible ink, to urge the court to conduct a judicial review of the Sabah electoral roll over phantom voter concerns brought up during the ongoing royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigration, and to seek a declaration that Section 9A of the Election Act preventing judicial review of electoral rolls be declared ultra vires the constitution.

Constitutional law expert Abdul Aziz Bari will lead Pakatan's team in filing the legal suits.

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