KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 — While it is a democratic right for Perikatan Nasional (PN) to file a suit in the Election Court over alleged vote-buying by Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the recently concluded Kuala Kubu Baru by-election, analysts view that the coalition should not carry on with it.
Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research senior fellow Azmi Hassan said it is a similar situation to the Kemaman state seat by-election, although Terengganu Umno managed to prove their case in court, they still lost badly in the by-election and suffered a big blow.
“They (PN) may be taking the queue of Umno in succeeding to cancel the win in Kemaman and PN also feels that it is their right to file the court petition.
“But Umno should not have filed the court petition because the majority gained by PAS in the state election was a huge margin (27,179).
“So when the by-election was held, it was a huge blow for Umno,” Azmi told Malay Mail when contacted.
In the straight fight against Barisan Nasional-Umno candidate Gen (Rtd) Tan Sri Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor, Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar won the Kemaman by-election with a 37,220 majority.
“Similar to PN, let’s say they succeed in proving that corruption occurred at the particular time (Kuala Kubu Baru by-election), at a margin of 3,869 majority, for a state seat election, it’s a very huge margin.
“So if there is another by-election the margin will be quite similar in this case. So in thinking of filing the court petition, PN should not do it because the margin is too huge.
“But if the margin is small, let’s say about 1,000 then they may have a chance; in this case, I think PN should forget about the court petition,” Azmi said.
Last Monday, PAS secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan warned that PN would file an election petition to court if PH wins the Kuala Kubu Baru by-election.
The PN chief whip said that the coalition has evidence that the unity government has abused its funds, which it said amounted to bribing voters.
On Tuesday, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said it has not received any complaint against Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor King who is accused of fishing for votes in the Kuala Kubu Baru by-election.
Earlier this month, electoral watchdog Bersih criticised Nga’s RM5.21 million announcement to upgrade public infrastructure facilities in Kuala Kubu Bari ahead of the by-election.
International Islamic University Malaysia associate professor Syaza Shukri said while PN should go ahead with the petition, she viewed that the Opposition coalition will not do it.
“I would like to think that PN should go ahead and file the petition to hold them accountable to their words, but I honestly don’t think they would do so because another round of elections would be costly for them as well and it doesn’t appear they could win in Kuala Kubu Baru,” she said when contacted.
Weighing in, Universiti Kebangsaaan Malaysia (UKM) Suffian Manson said while PN is free to pursue the suit, it would be useless to continue with it since the Election Commissioner (EC) said there are no bribery and misused government assets.
“As a democratic country, PN is free to pursue the suit. However, as the EC mentioned, if there are no bribery and misused govt assets, it would be useless to continue,” Suffian said.
Selangor Menteri Besar and Selangor PH chairman Datuk Seri Amiruddin Shari denied that allegation yesterday, saying that PH had conducted a harmonious campaign during the by-election.
On Saturday, the EC announced that PH candidate Pang Sock Tao had won the state seat with a 3,869-vote majority over PN’s Khairul Azhari Saut.
