PUTRAJAYA, Aug 18 — The Federal Court today allowed Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Tan Sri M. Ramasamy’s appeal to send back his Segamat election petition to the Election Court for a full hearing.
A three-member bench comprising Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof, Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim and Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan ordered the petition to be heard before another judge.
The court set aside the Election Court’s April 3 decision to strike Ramasamy’s petition after accepting a preliminary objection raised by respondents.
The respondents named in the petition were Segamat MP R. Yuneswaran, the returning officer and the Election Commission.
In the court’s decision, Zabariah remitted the petition to the Election Court to hear issues on whether campaign materials had violated election laws, and on bribery allegations.
Zabariah then fixed August 24 for mention of the case at the Election Court.
Yuneswaran, a Pakatan Harapan candidate, won the seat with a majority of 5,669 votes in GE15 last year, and was declared MP of the constituency.
He defeated Ramasamy, Perikatan Nasional’s P. Poobalan and Pejuang’s Syed Hairoul Faizey. Ramasamy, who is MIC treasurer, stood as a BN candidate.
Ramasamy subsequently filed the election petition seeking a declaration the results for the Segamat parliamentary seat void and that Yuneswaran was not duly elected MP.
Election Court judge Mohd Radzi Abdul Hamid had dismissed Ramasamy’s petition after accepting the preliminary objection raised by respondents, including that Ramasamy failed to comply with Rule 15(4) of the Election Petition Rules 1954, pertaining to the particulars of his (Ramasamy’s) affidavit of service, and regarding the facts pleaded in his petition, which were incapable of sustaining the declarations sought.
Ramasamy was represented by lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, while lawyer Lau Yi Leong represented Yuneswaran. Senior federal counsel Suzana Atan appeared for the returning officer and the Election Commission.
— Bernama
