KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — PAS Vice-President Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar today said that the party will make a final decision on whether to appeal the Election Court’s decision to nullify the victory of Kemaman MP Che Alias Hamidi in the 15th general election (GE15) after receiving the written decision.
The Terengganu menteri besar said that he expects to receive the written decision from the judge next week.
“I expect a meeting will be held to discuss this matter, but for now it has not been called yet.
“We are open to any option and that's why we want to see the judge's decision before deciding whether there will be an election or not. We are ready for any possibility,” he said in a Facebook livestream after attending Terengganu’s Prophet Muhammad’s birthday celebration at Gong Badak Indoor Stadium.
Ahmad Samsuri added that should a by-election be held, the Islamist party is confident of gaining voters’ support based on the latter’s current mood.
Yesterday, the Election Court decided to nullify Terengganu PAS committee member Che Alias’s GE-15 victory in the Kemaman parliamentary seat in Terengganu.
The election judge Datuk Anselm Charles Fernandis had accepted his client’s allegations that there had been bribery in several official events of the Terengganu state government through the distribution of i-Belia and i-Siswa aid funds to voters during the GE15 campaign period to garner votes for Che Alias.
On January 3, Wan Mohamad Hisham Wan Abdul Jalil had filed the election petition on behalf of Terengganu Umno to challenge the Kemaman GE15 election result.
In GE15 held on November 19 last year, Che Alias had won the Kemaman seat in a four-cornered fight with 65,714 votes, which gave him a 27,179 vote-majority over Barisan Nasional candidate and Terengganu Umno chief Datuk Seri Ahmad Said. Ahmad was the candidate with the second-highest number of votes at 38,535.
