Maijol Mahap, the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidate for the Kota Marudu parliamentary seat claimed in the Election Court in Kota Kinabalu today, that he secured the highest number of votes in the general election on May 5, this year.

He said he made this discovery when he had the opportunity to see copies of the respondents’ bundle of documents obtained by his lawyer after filing in the Election Petition.

“I did not have the chance to verify that (highest number of votes) because I did not have the Form 14 (a statement that records the total number of votes obtained by each candidate and number of spoilt votes, and the final gazetted results).

“As I took a look at them (bundle of documents), it showed I obtained the highest number of votes. But that night (when the votes were counted and tabulated) at the Kota Marudu Community Hall (counting centre), I did not have this information,” he said.

He also claimed his election agent could not witness the tallying of votes because the returning officer had prohibited it.

In the petition, Mahap had named Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Dr Maximus Ongkili, who won the seat for the Barisan Nasional, as the first respondent, and returning officer Lovita Koisun and the Election Commission as the second and third respondents, respectively.

On Aug 13, Judge Yew Jen Kee had ruled that allegations of corruption against Ongkili, pertaining to the contest be dropped from the petition but maintained Ongkili as the first respondent, by virtue of him being the winner.

Mahap also claimed in his petition that copies of Form 14 were not given to PKR’s polling agents.

Ongkili won by a majority of 842 votes after garnering 15,168 votes in a four-cornered fight. Mahap obtained 14,326 votes, Star candidate Majamis Timbong (2,228 votes) while Yuntau alias Kuntau Kolod (SAPP) only managed 444 votes.

- Bernama