Kota Kinabalu: The High Court here has affirmed that Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Shahelmey Yahya remains the Putatan Member of Parliament after dismissing an election petition by Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Awang Husaini Sahari.
Justice Wong Siong Tung struck out the petition filed by Awang Husaini who had lost to Shahelmey in the 15th general election (GE15) by 124 votes.
The court stated that the petition was filed out of the prescribed timeframe of 28 days in accordance with Section 38(1)(a) of the Election Offences Act 1954.
The court also rejected the petitioner’s claims that the error in numbers in Part D of the Form 14 amounts to non-compliance of 24(1)(b), 24(1)(c), 25(3)(b) and 25(4) of the Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981.
In his ruling, Wong said it was a simple arithmetical error of filling up the forms.
The court further stated that the petitioner failed to plead material facts to show that their petitioner had in fact objected to the result as contained in the said forms.
Wong then ordered Awang Husaini to pay costs amounting to RM10,000, during the online proceeding.
Shahelmey, who is the Tanjung Keramat Assemblyman, is also a Sabah Deputy Chief Minister and the State Works Minister.
In GE15, Shahelmey won the Putatan seat in a four-cornered contest after garnering 16,234 votes. Awang Husaini obtained 16,110 votes, followed by Warisan’s Ahmad Said (8,511) and Pejuang’s Poyne Tudus (394).
In January, Awang Husaini filed an election petition seeking to annul the results for the Putatan seat.
