Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for Permatang Pauh in the last general election, Pirdaus Ismail, today denied in the Penang High Court that his witnesses had been instructed on what to say.

"It was not true and was malicious to suggest so," he said to the suggestion by Christopher Fernando, the counsel of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, to whom he lost in the polls.

He has named the PKR leader as the first respondent in his election petition.

Pirdaus is seeking to nullify the results of the election on the grounds that returning officer Muzamin Mastak - who is second respondent - had failed to announce the results of the first counting of the votes.

The Election Commission (EC) was named as the third respondent in the petition, which was filed last April 30.

Piradus, 39, said all the witnesses gave similar accounts because that was the truth and it was not true that they were like parrots, repeating what were said to them.

Singing the same tune

Fernando had suggested that a team were coaching the witnesses because they were singing the same tune and all had made identical claims, while the words or phrases used were almost similar.

"Clearly, there's a team directing the petition and statements presented to the court," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

However, Pirdaus disagreed to this suggestion.

The BN candidate also said that he did not ask for a re-count because he did not know how many votes he or Wan Azizah had during the first counting on March 21.

Questioned by his counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, he said he did not know how EC staff could get into the hall where the re-count was held on March 22 as it was locked.

Pirdaus said that the night before, the returning officer had ordered everyone to leave the hall and when the police opened the hall the following day, there were already people inside.

He said he also did not know who was the last to leave the hall and what was the security arrangement like.

Hearing before Justice Hasan Lah continues on Sept 1.

Ballot boxes trashed

Yesterday, Pirdaus told the court that he did not kick ballot boxes in anger over the re-counting process on March 22.

He said he could not have behaved in such an irrational manner as there were many people present at the Tuanku Bainun Teachers College's hall where the re-counting took place.

The former grand imam of the national mosque said although he was unhappy with the explanation given by Election Commission (EC) staff regarding the ballot boxes which were in a mess, he did not trashed the boxes resulting in the hall being littered with papers and rubbish.

He said Muzamin had told him that he lost the election on the first count on the night of March 21 but did not say by how many votes.

The BN candidate added that he was surprised but not angry or disappointed because the result was not official, and he told Muzamin to wait for the official announcement.

He then disagreed with the suggestion of senior federal counsel Kamarudin Kamsun, who represented Muzmin and the EC that Muzamin had told him that Wan Azizah's majority was less than two percent and therefore he could ask for a re-count.

"I wasn't told about the total number of votes, I didn't ask for a re-count that night and I didn't ask for the re-count to be held the next day either.

"It was the second respondent who announced at about 12.30am that a re-count would be held the next day, that is at 10am," he said.

To a question by Fernando ( photo ), Pirdaus denied that he was hot-tempered and had angrily caused disarray to the boxes and envelopes that had been neatly arranged by the EC staff.

He also denied Muzamin's testimony which was read out in court by Fernando that the re-count was delayed for over two hours due to his directive to the returning officer not to begin the process until he was satisfied.

"It's not true. I protested, yes, but I did not use harsh words. I used polite words and said that I was not happy because there were rubbish and papers on the ballot boxes," he said.

'No ill-intentions'

He said there was no truth to Muzamin's accusation, adding that it was made with ill-intentions. He also blamed the weakness of the returning officer and EC for the delay in the recount.

Pirdaus also refuted Muzamin's testimony that he had lost by 449 votes that night, and he also did not know whether Muzamin sympathised with him or not.

He disagreed with Fernando's suggestion that Muzamin did not announce the result of the first count that night, and had only told him about it later because he did not want to embarrass him.

Earlier under examination-in-chief by his counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Pirdaus said on the day of the re-count, Muzamin made two announcements.

The first one was about the first counting where his votes were 21,288 and Wan Azizah's 21,737 with a majority of 449 votes. Therew were 665 spoilt votes.

The second announcement was regarding the re-count where he polled 21,147 votes while Wan Azizah received 21,737 votes for a 590-vote majority, with the same number of spoilt votes.

Permatang Pauh, a former seat of jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, which is now held by his wife, Wan Azizah, is PKR's only seat in parliament.