No contest of court decision by PAS
proves existence of bribery,vote buying...
The decision by the PAS leadership not to contest the election court’s decision to nullify its victory in the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary election confirms the existence of bribery and vote buying in the constituency, claimed Nurul Izzah Anwar (below).
Speaking at a Malaysia Madani roadshow at Bukit Selambau, Kedah, during the weekend, the former Permatang Pauh MP said while Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) were unable to defend several of their stronghold seats during the 15th General Election (GE15), Perikatan Nasional (PN) attributed their victory to several reasons.
“(During the last GE), it was not only Permatang Pauh … we were also unable to defend Merbok and Kepala Batas. They gave plenty of theories (as to why they won), reasons A, B, and C but today, PAS’ leadership failed to defend their loss in court,” the PKR vice-president hit out.
“The election court’s decision to nullify PAS’ victory in Kuala Terengganu only proves that corruption and vote buying did happen. This is why they won the seat.”
Recall that Nurul herself failed to defend her ‘family’s fortress’ of Permatang Pauh during GE15 following her shock defeat to PAS’ Muhammad Fawwaz Mohamad Jan with a majority of 5,272 votes.
On June 27, the Terengganu Election Court nullified the victory of Datuk Ahmad Amzad Hashim who represented PAS in the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat during GE15 following allegations of vote-buying.
High Court judge Datuk Seri Mohd Firuz Jaffril who sat as an Election Court judge ruled that the petitioner – Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Mohd Zubir Embong – had successfully proved beyond reasonable doubt that there was an element of bribery during the election campaign.
According to state UMNO chief Datuk Seri Ahmad Said, among the points raised in the petition were allegations that PAS had bribed voters by distributing financial aid from the state government through the i-Pencen, i-Belia and i-Siswa initiatives between Nov 15 and 17 last year which was just a few days before GE15.
Ahmad Amzad (above) had won the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat in GE15 with a majority of 40,907 votes, defeating three other challengers, including Mohd Zubir.
Interestingly, however, he Kuala Terengganu High Court dismissed an UMNO petition against PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang for bribing voters during the run-up to the national polling day on Nov 19.
In Hadi’s case, Terengganu High Court judge Datuk Hassan Abdul Ghani who sat as an Election Court judge ruled that UMNO candidate Jasmira Othman had failed to raise reasonable doubt and dismissed the case. Jasmira was further ordered to pay Hadi RM50,000 in costs.
Recall that Terengganu UMNO had on Jan 3 filed a petition s per the Election Offences Act 1954 to annul the results for the Kuala Terengganu, Marang and Kemaman parliamentary seats in GE15. – focusmalaysia
Meanwhile, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) says ‘something is amiss’ about PAS’ decision not to submit an appeal against the result of the election petition for the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat. Its deputy president Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub (pix) said it was as if PAS admitted the existence of elements of corruption during the 15th General Election (GE15).
“Not submitting an appeal simply means confessing. Why not appeal? If it is a technical issue, I think we can ignore it, but if people accuse us of corruption, of committing election corruption, yet, we don’t appeal, something is wrong. “I think it’s strange because if we are really adamant that we don’t commit bribery, then the logic is that we will appeal the case at the Court of Appeal,“ he told reporters here today.
Yesterday, PAS secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan said the decision not to submit the appeal was to ensure the welfare of the people was not neglected due to the absence of an MP pending the case.
On June 27, the Terengganu election court annulled the victory of Ahmad Amzad Hashim who represented PAS in GE15, saying the petitioner, Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Mohd Zubir Embong, succeeded in proving that corruption had taken place with the aim of influencing voters. Ahmad Amzad won the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat in GE15 with a majority of 40,907 votes, defeating three other challengers, including Mohd Zubir. - Bernama
Survey on Selangor polls raises
more questions than answers...
An article by Marzuki Mohamad and Khairul Syakirin Zulkifli of Institut Masa Depan Malaysia (Institut MASA) raises more questions than answers about the upcoming state election in Selangor
I refer to the article written by Marzuki (below) and Khairul Syakirin which was published as a 'Perspective' piece with the title 'Why Perikatan Nasional may win in Selangor” by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (ISEAS) last week.
For full disclosure, I am currently a senior visiting fellow at the same institute and ISEAS will publish a 'Perspective' article written by me, entitled 'Malaysia’s 2023 state elections (part one): Projections and Scenarios”, later this week.
In the interest of academic and public discourse, I would like to raise a few pertinent questions with regard to the survey data that was used as the basis for this article as well as to point to a few important gaps in the analysis presented in the article.
It is interesting to note that Marzuki, an associate professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), chooses not to state the fact that he is the former principal private secretary to the 8th prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, in this article while his affiliation is clearly stated in a previous Perspective piece written by himself and Ibrahim Suffian, executive director of the Merdeka Center, published on March 24.
The omission of Marzuki’s affiliation to Muhyiddin is an important one because the recent article on the prospects of Perikatan Nasional in the upcoming state election in Selangor seems to give the impression that it was written by impartial researchers when, in fact, this is not the case.
Not only is Marzuki a close confidante of the former prime minister, the think tank which conducted the survey for the recent article – Institut Masa Depan Malaysia (MASA) – he is also linked to Muhyiddin.
Muhyiddin (above) is the chairperson of Institut MASA; Mohd Radzi Jidin, Putrajaya MP and Bersatu vice-president, is a member of the board of trustees as is Mohd Nardin Haji Awang, former political secretary to Muhyiddin when he was the deputy prime minister, education minister, and home minister.
This is not to say that a politically linked think tank like MASA cannot produce politically independent outputs. But in the interest of public transparency, these affiliations should be stated clearly by the authors, especially in articles which may seek to affect the electoral landscape in Malaysia. - Ong Kian Meng, Continue reading here...
Penang islanders and mainlanders often have different priorities . The opposition PN aims to wrest at least 15 malay majority seats on Aug 12 state poll to deny PH the 2/3 majority. This after three federal seats including Permatang Pauh succumbed to the green wave in GE15. - melgoh
As transparent as he can in Penang , DAP chief Anthony Loke was hard to pin down in N9. Seat nego was tough plus voters & supporters sentiments were mixed and uneasy over PH-BN alliance in particular awkwardness among Umno & DAP grassroots but unite they must against the green. - melgoh
cheers.
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