KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 — The Election Court in Terengganu today invalidated Datuk Ahmad Amzad Hashim’s victory in the Kuala Terengganu seat during last year’s 15th general election.
The decision was for the election petition that Datuk Mohd Zubir Embong, the Barisan Nasional candidate for the seat, filed against the result.
In GE15, Ahmad won the seat with a majority of 40,907 votes.
Ahmad Amzad's lawyer, Yusfarizal Yusoff, confirmed the court's decision when contacted.
“For Kuala Terengganu, the victory is invalidated. We will file an appeal (at the Federal Court),” he told Malay Mail.
Ahmad Amzad has 14 days to file his appeal to the Federal Court, failing which a by-election will be called.
In delivering his decision, High Court judge Datuk Seri Mohd Firuz Jaffril said the petitioner, Mohd Zubir, successfully proved beyond reasonable doubt that there was an element of bribery during the election campaign.
He said even though the petitioner was not called as a witness, other evidence was sufficient to declare the Kuala Terengganu result null and void in accordance with Section 36 of the Election Offences Act.
Separately, Yusfarizal also said the Election Court also dismissed the election petition filed by another BN candidate to annul the result of the Marang parliamentary seat in GE15, which was won by PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang.
On January 3, Terengganu Umno filed a petition to annul the results for the Kuala Terengganu, Marang and Kemaman parliamentary seats in GE15 in accordance with the Election Offences Act.
Terengganu Umno chief Datuk Seri Ahmad Said said among the points raised in the petition were allegations that PAS had bribed voters by distributing financial aid from the state government through the i-Pension, i-Belia and i-Student initiatives from Nov 15 to 17, 2022, just a few days before the GE15.
