KUALA TERENGGANU, 22 Sept 2008: The Election Court here today dismissed an election petition by the Terengganu Umno for a thorough examination and count of postal votes for the Ladang state seat in the last general election.
Justice Datuk Ramly Ali rejected the petition after ruling that the petitioner, Lorong Kemunting Umno branch chief Mahari Endut, had failed to prove his claim that the Election Commission (EC) clerk had not done his duty in handling the postal votes.
Mahari filed the petition on 28 April seeking a recount of 127 postal votes which the EC rejected on polling day on 8 March.
He named the returning officer for the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary constituency, Datuk Md Razali Kassim, the EC and Ladang state assemblyman Datuk Tengku Hassan Tengku Omar as respondents.
Tengku Hassan of PAS beat Datuk Wan Hisham Wan Salleh of Barisan Nasional (BN) with a slim 31-vote majority to win the seat in the election.
Wan Hisham was represented by a team of lawyers led by Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah while senior federal counsel Datuk Kamaluddin Mohd Said appeared for the EC and Tengku Hassan was represented by Datuk Wan Abdul Muttalib Embong.
Tengku Hassan told reporters outside the court that he had expected to win and that he would now focus on serving the voters of Ladang.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Shafee said he would appeal the decision to the Federal Court. – Bernama
