The Sanglang state seat in Perlis, which was won by Umno, has been declared vacant by the Election Court in Kangar, paving way for a possible by-election.

Justice Zainal Adzam Abdul Ghani today ruled that Barisan Nasional's victory in Sanglang in the March 8 general election was invalid.

hashim jasin pas sanglang perlis state seat court 180608 He however disagreed to allow an application by the losing candidate, Hashim Jasin ( right ) from PAS - who had held the seat for two terms - be automatically installed as the winner.

Zainal said that the court had no jurisdiction to declare Hashim as the assemblyperson for the seat.

He added that this was because Section 35(c) of the 1954 Election Offences Act, which empowered the Election Court to make such declarations, was abolished in 2003.

He said the court left it to the Election Commission to decide whether a by-election should be held and when to hold it.

Umno's candidate Abdullah Hassan won the seat with a majority of 149 votes, bagging 3,384 votes as opposed to Hashim's 3,235.

Hashim, who is Perlis PAS commissioner, claimed that he should have won Sanglang based on initial Election Commission records.

sanglang state seat perlis 180608 He said that he should be declared the winner as the vote tallied from all counting centres showed that he had polled 3,333 votes against Abdullah's 3,286 and had thus won by a 47-vote majority.

Apart from Abdullah, Hashim also named returning officer Muhamad Daud Abdull Hamid and the Election Commission as defendants.

Hashim was the incumbent of this state seat which he first won in 1999 but failed to retain in March this year. In 2004, he managed to retain the seat with a razor-thin 45 votes.

The defendants can appeal against the decision to the Federal Court.

Abdullah was represented by K Jegathesan while Hashim by Zulmi Sabri, Mohamed Hanipa Maidin and Aqbal Shiffuddin Adnan Salahudin.

Zulmi told Malaysiakini that Hashim would be appealing to the Federal Court to be declared as the automatic winner of the seat.

In the last polls, BN won 14 out of 15 state seats and all three parliamentary seats. It lost the neighbouring Simpang Empat state seat to PAS.