The Kota Baru election court today dismissed an application by Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) to strike out a PAS election petition challenging the results of the Pengkalan Pasir state by-election held on Dec 6 last year.

High Court Judge Hassah Lah, sitting as an election judge, rejected a preliminary objection by BN through its winning candidate Hanafi Mamat who claimed that there was no evidence to support the allegations made by PAS in its petition, said PAS lawyer Mohamad Hanipa Maidin when contacted.

He said the judge dismissed the objection stating that the facts, although brief, were sufficient and the allegations were "quasi-criminal" in nature.

"The court, however, agreed with BN's contention that some portions of the allegations did not have sufficient particulars and struck these out from our petition.

"As such, the court will now only hear three grounds which include two very important ones, our claims of bribery and phantom voters during the Pengkalan Pasir by-election," said Mohamad Hanipa.

He said the court set April 3 to 6 for hearing.

The petition which was filed by PAS Kelantan youth secretary Mohamed Ridza Zain in his capacity as a registered voter in the constituency and had named Hanafi, returning officer Abdul Halim Ahmad and the Election Commission as respondents.

Najib 'gave money'

The petition, among others, sought the court to declare the Dec 6 by-election results as "null and void". Hanafi won the contest by 134 votes, beating PAS' Hanifa Ahmad and independent candidate Ibrahim Ali.

The loss of the seat resulted in PAS - which has been ruling Kelantan since 1990 - having only a wafer-thin majority in the Kelanatan state assembly at 23 seats to BN's 22 seats.

Hanipa said although the election court had rejected some of the claims made in their petition, PAS was satisfied that the court wanted to hear the allegations of bribery and phantom voters.

"To us, these two are the main reasons why we filed the petition in the first place. In fact, among the issues that would be tried include our allegation of bribery involving Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

"So I will not rule out the possibility of calling the deputy premier to testify in this petition," he said.

PAS in its petition alleged that Najib gave money to voters during one of his many official visits to the constituency prior to the by-election besides promising them development in the event of BN wining the crucial battle.

"Najib and his entourage had gone to the house of (voter) Zulkifli Mamat at Kampung Pauh and given him RM500 before reminding him to vote for the 'dacing' (the weighing scales BN logo)," said the PAS election petition.