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Oct 14 decision day for Pujut election petition

The Election Court has fixed Oct 14 to decide on Pujut state seat election petition brought by the defeated BN direct candidate Hii King Chiong.

Justice Ravinthran N Paramaguru made the ruling in Miri today after both parties made their oral submissions for the election petition, the only case filed following the May 7 Sarawak state election.

Ravinthran said he needed to read through the relevant laws, previous Election Court decisions on election offences and study the submissions of both parties before making the final decision.

The petition was filed on June 16 on the ground that the winner of the seat, DAP's Dr Ting Tiong Choon (photo), who is named as sole respondent in the petition, was alleged to be an Australian citizen and had registered as a voter in Australia.

For the record, Sections 16 and 17(g) of the constitution of Sarawak stipulate that a state legislative assembly member should be disqualified if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of another country or has made a declaration of allegiance to any country outside Malaysia.

Earlier, the petitioner's lead counsel, Peter Lin Kuan Yuh, in his submission said the Pujut election petition was a straightforward case involving a disqualified person who won an election and that the petitioner had complied with the procedures and regulations pertaining to election petition filing.

As for the technical issues raised by the respondent's counsel, Chong Siew Chiang, that the security deposit of RM10,000 for filing election petition must be paid in cash, Lin said it was not the question as the High Court Registry had set a limit of accepting a maximum of RM500 cash money for a civil case, hence the reason the payment was made by cheque, which was cleared by the bank on the same day it was issued.

Meanwhile, Chong in his submission said an election petition should not proceed if all the procedures did not comply with mandatory rules as the Election Court had special jurisdiction that must be adhered to.

Apart from procedures, he said the allegation contained in the petition was defective and vague as it only stated that the respondent committed an offence under Section 32 of the Election Offences Act 1954 without detailing the charge, such as the place and the date the offence was allegedly committed.

Present at the packed court room were Hii, Ting and their relatives and supporters from both parties.

In the May 7 state election, Ting won with a majority of 1,759 votes in a four-cornered contest involving DAP, BN, PAS and an Independent candidate.

- Bernama

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