updated version

Two Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) members and a Likas constituency voter today filed an application for a court injunction to stop the forthcoming Likas by election on the grounds that the updated Likas electoral roll was null and void.

In the application filed at the Kota Kinabalu High Court this afternoon, PBS members Bidin Mamat and Bernadette Wong @ Wong Mui Lee, and Ching Jak Hon, a voter in the constituency, also sought an order to direct the Elections Commission to revise the roll or make further alterations.

The Likas by-election will be held on July 21 following a court ruling early last month that the result of the state elections in 1999 for the seat was invalid due to phantom voters.

Yesterday, PBS deputy president Dr Yee Moh Chai said the party was considering legal action against the Elections Commission to delay the by-election.

According to him, although the party has yet to go through the June 27 updated electoral roll, it doubted the Commission had enough time to ensure that the names of the phantom voters had been removed from it.

"Until we have evidence that the names of all dubious voters have been removed, any right-minded person would be in doubt as to whether the roll is clean," he said.

Today, PBS Central Committee member Dr Chong En Leong told malaysiakini the party is seeking to delay the by-election until they can ensure that the electoral roll is free of 'phantom voters'.

"The electoral roll should go through the proper procedures where it can be scrutinised by the public and objections can be raised," he said.

Additional 220 names

Last week, PBS submitted a list of more than 5,000 names of Likas voters which the party claims to be phantom voters on the constituency electoral roll.

When announcing the by election date on Saturday, Elections Commission chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said the Commission will be using last year's electoral roll which was verified and updated as of June 27.

Abdul Rashid said the updated roll now had 26,196 voters, an extra 220 from the 1998 roll which had 25,976 names.

The Likas by election was called for after Elections Court Judge Muhammad Kamil Awang, in upholding the election petitions filed by Chong and former Parti Bersekutu president Harris Salleh, on June 8 declared as null and void the 1999 state elections result for the seat which was won by former Sabah Chief Minister Yong Teck Lee.