Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin, whose win in the Rembau parliamentary seat is challenged in court, has through his lawyer presented four objections to the case today.

His opponent Badrul Hisham Sharin from PKR filed an election petition in the aftermath of Khairy’s win in the March 8 General Elections.

Khairy's lawyer Shafee Abdullah made four preliminary objections to the petition based on technicality, according to Badrul’s lawyer R Sheila. They were:

  1. Two copies of the petition were not forwarded to Khairy and his lawyer.

  • There were no petition particulars.

  • The petition did not specify section 32B of the Election Offences Act.

  • The term ‘declaration’ was not used in the petition.

    • Judge Wira Mohtaruddin Baki of the Seremban High Court today said he will decide on Wednesday whether to proceed with a hearing on the petition.

    khairy jamaluddin and badrul hisham and rembau In his petition filed on April 24, Badrul claimed that the election results should be invalidated since Election Commission (EC) officers in charge of the Rembau constituency failed to produce ‘Form 14' after the counting process on election day.

    ‘Form 14' is to be produced by the EC at each polling station to show the vote tally in the room. It is compulsory for EC officials to release the form to contesting candidates.

    Badrul unsure of his chances

    Badrul, who lost by 5,746 votes to Khairy, said he is unsure of his chances on whether the court petition will be accepted.

    rembau parliamentary seat 2008 results “I think there’s a 50-50 chance that the judge will decide to hold a hearing.

    "I am satisfied with the presentation of my lawyer and we will see what happens on Wednesday,” he said.

    The former teacher added that the main purpose of filing the petition was to draw people back to some of the "unsettled issues" in the contest for Rembau.

    “There were many issues raised by me that Khairy failed to respond to. One of the examples is the ECM-Libra Avenue scandal. Not once did he manage to answer my questions on this,” said Badrul.

    The ECM Libra-Avenue deal was approved by Abdullah shortly after Khairy had bought a RM9.2 million worth of direct stake in it.

    This led to wide criticisms of cronyism as Abdullah was overseeing government-linked companies (GLCs) in his capacity as finance minister.

    Subsequently, Khairy was forced by public pressure to sell off his shares in ECM Libra in August 2006.

    Mat Sabu's petition thrown out

    Meanwhile, the Kuala Terengganu High Court has thrown out the petition by PAS' Mohamad Sabu, who is challenging the results of Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat.

    Mohamad, who lost the contest to Umno's Razali Ismail in the general election, had claimed that the 1,085 postal votes in the seat contained many statutory loopholes.

    The court, in striking out the case, said that it has no jurisdiction on the petition.