KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 5 — The Election Court in Kota Baru today struck out an election petition filed by Umno veteran Tengku Tan Sri Razaleigh Hamzah’s representative Mohd Azmi Mahmood to challenge the Gua Musang election results in the 15th General Election (GE15).

Mohd Azmi had this January filed the election petition to seek to nullify the November 19, 2022 results for the Gua Musang parliamentary seat, which the 86-year-old Tengku Razaleigh had lost by just 163 votes to Perikatan Nasional’s Datuk Mohd Azizi Abu Naim in a four-cornered fight. The election petition was reportedly aimed at getting a by-election.

Mohd Azizi had won 21,826 votes, while Tengku Razaleigh had garnered 21,663 votes.

When contacted, Gua Musang MP Mohd Azizi’s lawyer Yusfarizal Yusoff told Malay Mail that the petitioner Mohd Azmi had "fired all his lawyers yesterday” and that Mohd Azmi did not attend court proceedings today.

Today was initially scheduled for the Election Court’s hearing of the election petition, but Yusfarizal said the Gua Musang MP’s Mohd Azizi lawyers had applied for the election petition to be struck out.

"We applied after petitioner’s lawyer informed they have been terminated, and the petitioner himself did not attend,” Yusfarizal said, adding that the Election Court then struck out the petition with a cost of RM80,000.

Apart from Yusfarizal, lawyers Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan and Mohd Faizi Che Abu appeared for Mohd Azizi.

The legal team for Tengku Razaleigh’s representative Mohd Azmi includes lawyers such as Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Wan Harun and Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

The other lawyers for Mohd Azmi are Datuk Abu Bakar Isa Ramat, Mohamed Baharudeen Mohamed Ariff, Norhazira Abu Haiyan and Muhammad Amin Othman.

The Election Court in Kota Baru had on February 26 struck out the election petition by ruling that it was filed beyond the required 28-day time frame.

On June 19, a three-judge panel at the Federal Court unanimously decided to set aside the Election Court’s decision to strike out the election petition, and ordered the Gua Musang election petition to be sent back to the Election Court for a full hearing on its merits.