The Federal Court in Putrajaya today dismissed two appeals brought by PAS over election petitions for the parliamentary constituency of Pulai in Johor and Selising state constituency in Kelantan.

The decisions were delivered by a five-member panel chaired by Court of Appeal President Md Raus Sharif, thus maintaining the victory of Nur Jazlan Mohamed and Zulkifle Ali of Barisan Nasional (BN) respectively for the Pulai parliamentary constituency and Selising state constituency.

On the panel with Justice Raus were Federal Court judges Abdull Hamid Embong, Ahmad Maarop, Hasan Lah and Ramly Ali.

The appeal on the election petition of the Pulai parliamentary constituency was brought by a voter, Zaaba Ibrahim, while PAS election director Selising Semsudin Muhammad filed the appeal for the Selising state seat.

They were appealing against the Election Court’s decisions in respectively dismissing their election petitions to nullify Barisan Nasional’s victory in the two  constituencies in the 13th general election held in May last year.

For the appeal on the election petition for the Pulai constituency, Justice Raus, in his ruling, held that that election judge was right in striking out the election petition due to failure by the petitioner (Zaaba) to show sufficient facts to support his grounds to nullify the election results for that constituency.

He also dismissed Zaaba’s appeal against the Election Court’s decision in imposing RM60,000 in legal costs, ruling that the sum awarded was not excessive.

Justice Raus also ordered Zaaba to pay RM10,000 in legal costs to the returning officer and the Election Commission and another RM10,000 in costs to Nur Jazlan for court proceedings in the Federal Court.

Nur Jazlan defeated PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub with a 3,226-vote majority in the contest.

On the Selising seat appeal, Justice Raus said the panel agreed with the submissions made by the petitioner (Semsudin) that the Election Judge was wrong to strike out his election petition on the

ground that he (Semsudin) had not properly served the election petition.

However, he said the Federal Court was empowered to determine other preliminary objections which were not decided on by the election court and hence held that there was no merit in the other preliminary objections and subsequently dismissed the appeal.

Justice Raus ordered Semsudin to pay RM10,000 in costs to Zulkifle and another RM10,000 in costs to the returning officer and the Election Commission.

Zulkifle defeated Saiful Bahrim Mohamad of PAS and an independent candidate, Ibrahim Ismail, by a majority of 107 votes in the 13th general election in that contest.

- Bernama