PAS will file an election petition to challenge the Pengkalan Pasir by-election results, claiming that irregularities in the voting process had caused its defeat.

Its vice-president Nasharuddin Mat Isa said the party will file the petition as soon as it completes compiling evidence of the alleged irregularities.

"We also plan to file a complaint with Suhakam (Malaysian Human Rights Commission) on the abuse of democracy that had taken place throughout the by-election," he said when contacted today.

PAS had lost the seat by 134 votes to Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Hanafi Mamat and this has put the party in a precarious position as it now only has a single seat majority over BN in the Kelantan state assembly.

The outcome of the contest was considered a surprise by some of the locals as the seat is a traditional seat for PAS.

The by-election was called following the demise of PAS incumbent Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Jaffar who won the seat in the last general election after beating Hanafi by 56 votes.

'Criminal elements'

Commenting on the matter, PAS vice-president Husam Musa claimed that the party has collected evidence of "criminal elements" in the election process.

"We found one case of duplicity when one of our supporters could not cast his vote as he had already voted.

"We also found the names of 14 deceased people who had cast their ballots in one stream. It is obvious it involves a party that is able to issue fake identity cards. This is a serious breach of trust," he alleged.

Husam stressed that if such serious transgressions are not thoroughly investigated, the credibility of elections in Malaysia will be in question.

"This might just be one incident but we need only one to prove that there is something wrong with the (election) system. If left unchecked, the people would lose faith in everything and when that happens Malaysia will be in a worrying state," he said.

'MCA pays voters'

Husam, who is also PAS Kelantan deputy commissioner, accused BN component party MCA of money politics.

"In the early morning of polling day yesterday, MCA workers were seen giving electors between RM100 and RM150. This took place at the MCA office in Pasir Mas," he claimed.

"This is threatening the country's democracy. The ruling party blatantly gives money to people without respecting the law," he further charged.

The PAS leader also pointed out that BN would have lost the election without the help of 261 postal votes, from which 150 were in favour of BN.

"We only managed to garner 15 while (independent candidate) Ibrahim (Ali) got 4. We have long complained against the lack of transparency in postal votes. We don't know how it is conducted and we believe that there would be pressure for the voters (to vote for the BN)," he said.

Postal votes are mostly from members of the police force and the army, and voting is done without scrutiny from contesting political parties.