Court Declares Anifah Aman’s Victory for Kimanis in GE14 Null and Void

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The Special Election Court in Kota Kinabalu today ruled as null and void Datuk Seri Anifah Aman’s victory for the Kimanis parliamentary seat in the 14th General Election (GE14).

Judge Lee Heng Cheong said the decision was made based on the discovery of elements of manipulation, including additional ballot papers, in the ballot boxes.

Lee ruled that 284 additional ballots were improperly cast in one voting centre while 57 additional ballots were found to have been improperly added in another voting centre.

“The presence of the additional ballot papers had influenced the results of the polls, and therefore, the victory is null and void,” he said and ordered the Election Commission to pay cost of RM100,000 to Parti Warisan Sabah candidate for the seat, Datuk Karim Bujang, who filed the election petition.

Karim filed the petition on June 18 last year to challenge the election results in which Anifah won with a 156-vote majority, securing 11, 942 votes against Karim’s 11, 786 votes. The Election Commission was named as the second respondent.

Anifah has since left Umno to stand as an independent MP.

Bernama

Anifah’s counsel Tengku Fuad Ahmad told FMT that they will appeal to the Federal Court.

“It seems that the judge has made a number of reversible errors in his findings, especially since we do not know whether the additional votes were in favour of Anifah or Karim Bujang, who made the election petition.

“To satisfy the Section 32(b), you must show that Karim would have won except for the additional votes. We will take this further on appeal,” he said.

The court, however, dismissed the case of bribery and corruption against Anifah with costs of RM105,000 against Karim.