KOTA BARU • Barisan Nasional candidate for the Gua Musang parliamentary seat Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (picture) has filed an election petition at the High Court here, to challenge the outcome of the 15th General Election (GE15) for the parliamentary constituency.

The petition was filed by Mohd Azmi Mahmood on behalf of Tengku Razaleigh on Jan 3, naming Gua Musang MP Datuk Mohd Azizi Abu Naim of Perikatan Nasional, returning officer Ab Fatah Hasbullah and the Election Commission (EC) as the first to third respondents.

Lawyer Mohamed Baharudeen Mohamed Ariff, representing Mohd Azmi, said the petition, among others, seeks to declare as invalid the election result for the Gua Musang parliamentary constituency and for the EC to call for a by-election for the seat.

“The petition was filed to challenge the GE15 result for the Gua Musang parliamentary seat which allegedly involved money politics.

“Our client claims that the ballot boxes from certain polling district centres (PDM) were unaccounted for and the ballot papers were not returned,” he said in a statement today.

The court has fixed Jan 25 for the next case management.

In the last GE15, Tengku Razaleigh, or fondly known as Ku Li, failed to defend the Gua Musang seat when he lost to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia candidate Mohd Azizi.

Mohd Azizi won the seat with a slim majority of 163 votes when he obtained 21,826 votes while Tengku Razaleigh garnered 21,663 votes. – Bernama