PAS' application for a judicial review by the Penang High Court to nullify the election results for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's Kepala Batas parliamentary constituency was dismissed today.

Justice Mohamed Noor Abdullah dismissed the application, by PAS candidate for the seat Abdul Khalid Rasid, in chambers after ruling that the application was against the court rules.

According to a Bernama report, Abdul Khalid's counsel, Darshan Singh Khaira said the application was dismissed because all election claims or objections should be brought by way of election petition.

However all is not lost for Abdul Khalid as he had also filed an election petition on May 5 against the prime minister seeking to declare his election to the seat null and void. The case will be heard within six months after an election judge is appointed.

In the polls, Abdullah had retained the seat by a whopping 18,122 majority. The premier bagged 25403 votes, compared to Abdul Khalid's 7,281.

In his affidavit in support of the application for review today, the PAS candidate said Abdullah was not eligible to contest in the March 21 elections because he failed to file his statement of expenditure for the general election in 1999 within the stipulated period.

He said the review was also to nullify the decision of the returning officer Abdul Ghani Ariffin, for rejecting his objection on the same matter without reasonable grounds, whether orally or in writing.

Abdul Khalid claimed that Abdul Ghani's appointment as returning officer was not neutral and independent because the latter was a district officer in the constituency and was biased in his decision.

Penaga review

Meanwhile, the court also rejected another application by PAS candidate for the Penaga state seat, Subri Mohamed Arshad, for judicial review to declare the election of Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Azhar Ibrahim null and void.

Darshan said the application against Azhar was made on the same ground, namely failure to submit the statement of expenditure in the 1999 election.

Both applications named the respective returning officers and the Election Commission (EC) as respondents.

The Penaga seat falls under the Kepala Batas constituency.

Abdullah and Azhar were represented Muhammad Shafee Abdullah while the EC and the returning officers were represented by senior federal counsel Zaitun Zawiyah Puteh and Azizah Nawawi.

Darshan Singh said he would appeal the decisions in the Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Shafee said the court dismissed the applications of the two PAS candidates with no order as to costs because they violated Article 118 of the Federal Constition which required any objection in the election to be filed by way of an election petition.

He said their claims had no basis because Abdullah and Azhar were confirmed to have submitted their statements of expenditure in the 10th general election years ago.

PAS has filed a total of 23 election petitions nationwide.