MIC vice-president Datuk C Sivarraajh is ineligible to contest in the Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election on Jan 26, the Election Commission (EC) announced today.
EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun, who announced this in a statement, also said that Sivarraajh cannot register as a voter or vote in any election or be elected in any election for five years from Dec 13 this year.
He said the EC had taken the appropriate measures in arriving at the decision, as provided for under the existing election-related laws and regulations.
On June 4, DAP candidate M Manogaran filed a petition to nullify the general election result.
In his petition, he claimed that both Sivarraajh and Jelai assemblyman Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, who is also Pahang Mentri Besar, had met nine village heads and gave them money, asking them to distribute between RM30 and RM1,000 each to the orang asli community.
High Court (Appellate and Special Powers) judge Justice Azizah Nawawi said Manogaran had established beyond reasonable doubt that bribery took place during the election.
In the GE14, Sivarraajh won the parliamentary seat with a slim 597-vote majority over four other candidates.
He garnered 10,307 votes, beating Manogaran who got 9,710 votes, Wan Mahadir Wan Mahmud (PAS, 3,587 votes), Mohd Tahir Kassim (Berjasa, 81 votes), and B Suresh Kumar (PSM, 680 votes).