Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail held on to the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat after the Penang High Court today struck out an election petition filed to nullify the results.

Judge Hasan Lah dismissed the petition filed by BN/Umno candidate Pirdaus Ismail with costs and declared Wan Azizah as the winner.

"The judge finds all allegations made in the petition baseless," said Saiful Izham Ramli, a member of the PKR leader's defence team.

The decision was made after a 25-day hearing, which began on June 21.

The courtroom was packed with supporters from both PKR and PAS while about 200 others gathered outside the court building.

The elated crowd began chanting reformasi after the decision was delivered.

Pirdaus to appeal

Contacted later, Pirdaus said he will file an appeal with the Federal Court.

"I am not disappointed but I will seek an appeal because the judge agreed that there were mistakes done by the state Election Commission, so I have grounds for appeal," said the Umno Youth exco member.

The 39-year-old former national mosque imam had named Wan Azizah, the state Election Commission and its returning officer Muzamin Mastak as respondents in his petition.

His complaints included that the returning officer failed to declare the results of the first count on March 21, his counting agents being denied entry to the Seri Penanti school polling centre and five ballot boxes found unsealed during the recount.

He had asked the court to order a recount or declare him as the winner. Pirdaus also asked the court to make any other order deemed necessary, which could include a re-election.

Wan Azizah, the wife of ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, won the seat after two recounts with a slim majority of 590 votes. The seat was held by Anwar prior to his sacking in 1998 and subsequent jailing on charges of sodomy and corruption.

He was released this year after his sodomy conviction was overturned by the Federal Court.

Wan Azizah was not present in court today as she is accompanying Anwar and the couple are currently in Jeddah.

The judgment

In his judgment, justice Hassan adjudged that Pirdaus petition was filed on baseless grounds.

Among others, he said that the petitioner's allegation that three BN counting agents; namely Haszahdi Hassan, Mohd Nizam Man @ Mansor and Mohd Fazil were disallowed from entering three of the seven streams at the Seri Penanti polling station, was unacceptable.

From testimonies given by witnesses, he said the BN agents were allowed to enter into the other four streams, and therefore it was inconceivable they were disallowed from entering the other three.

"I could only conclude that the agents were never present at the alleged three streams," he said.

Hassan also said returning officer Muzamin Mastak did not commit any irregularities when he carried the counting, recounting and subsequent announcement of results, as claimed by Pirdaus.

Wonderful news

Wan Azizah's eldest daughter Nurul Izzah applauded the judge for his decision, which she described as "wonderful news".

"It is a victory for the voters and now my mother (Wan Azizah) can move on to real work in the constituency," she said when contacted.

She also noted that the decision was another step towards the restoration of judicial independence.

Nurul Izzah said retaining PKR's sole seat was also vital for the party's continued survival.

The party was trounced by the Barisan Nasional in the March 21 general election.

Wan Azizah and Anwar are scheduled to return to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the same court also struck out another election petition filed by BN/Umno Adnan Ramli in challenging the victory of PAS' Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman in the Permatang Pasir state seat, one of the three state seats under Permatang Pauh.

Mohd Hamdan, who is the incumbent, garnered 8,057 votes while Adnan polled 7,378 votes.

With additional reporting from Athi Veeranggan, malaysiakini's Penang-based stringer.