The Federal Court yesterday allowed the election petition for Tapah filed by PKR candidate K Vasantha Kumar to be heard in full trial before the High Court in Ipoh.

It overturned the Aug 15 decision by the High Court in Ipoh to throw out the PKR challenging the Tapah seat result in the May 5 general election that was won by MIC’s M Saravanan ( right ).

In that matter, High Court judge Abdul Rahman Sebli dismissed the petition after ruling that K Hariharan was not appointed as an advocate as per the requirement of Rule 9 of the Elections Petition Rules 1954.

 

Therefore, Justice Abdul Rahman ruled, Hariharan could not appear as Vasantha Kumar’s counsel and he ordered a record sum of RM190,000 to be paid as costs.

 

“Vasantha Kumar did not have the qualification of an advocate to argue his own petition,” Abdul Rahman also said in his judgment.

Justice Md Raus Sharif, who headed a five-member panel in yesterday’s Federal Court decision, said: “The Election Court was wrong and the Federal Court is remitting this petition to the Election Court to hear on the merits.” 

Vasantha Kumar ( left ) said: “I respect the decision by the Federal Court as a fair decision for the Tapah voters. I am confident that the truth will emerge and justice will prevail.”

The justice delivered by the Federal Court, Vasantha Kumar added, had given him an avenue to highlight electoral fraud and political violence that had jeopardised his chance of a fair and just election.

 

The political violence included the murder of his political aide K Murugan, 36, just a before days before the election.

Saravanan is a deputy youth and sports minister. He garnered 20,670 votes in Tapah at the May 5 general election, defeating Vasantha Kumar (12,743) by a majority of 7,927 votes.

Also yesterday, the Federal Court overturned another High Court decision throwing out PKR's petition disputing the election result for Bagan Datoh, which was won by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, now the home minister.