A total of 36 witnesses for petitioner M Manogaran and 16 witnesses for C Sivaraajh are scheduled to testify in the Cameron Highlands election petition, which has been fixed for hearing for 14 days beginning Sept 3.

This is unless election judge Justice Azizah Nawawi decides, this Thursday, to grant Sivaraajh's application to strike out the petition filed by Manogaran.

This was revealed during case management of the matter today.

According to lawyer Nor Hazira Abu Haiyan for Cameron Highlands MP Sivaraajh, Justice Azizah wanted to know the arrangements in the preparation of the case, should the trial go ahead next Monday.

"We will file 16 witness statement for Sivaraajh today," Nor Hazira told reporters.

Meanwhile, Manogaran’s lawyers M Rajenthirakumar and K Shanmuga said they had already filed the witness statements of their 36 witnesses to court.

Manogaran, from the DAP, filed the election petition on June 5 to nullify the outcome of the Cameron Highlands parliamentary election result.

He claimed that the eventual victor, Sivaraajh, who is from the MIC, had bribed and threatened the voters, especially the Orang Asli community that comprises 20 percent of the voters there.

Manogaran said Sivaraajh and Jelai assemblyperson Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail had paid the constituents "duit rokok" (financial inducement), resulting in him losing the parliamentary seat by 597 votes in the May 9 general election.

In his 161-page petition filed in Kuala Lumpur, the DAP member said he had lost many Orang Asli votes despite having campaigned there since 2016.