THE Election Court, which nullified the Kimanis election results, did not identify the persons responsible for introducing additional ballot papers, Election Commission (EC) chairman Azhar Azizan Harun said.

Azhar was responding to former foreign affairs minister Anifah Aman’s counsel, Tengku Fuad Ahmad, who said today that the EC had let down its staff by not appealing as the ruling had implicated the commission’s officers.

He said the decision not to appeal was a professional one after considering every aspect of the case.

“If we look at the judgment, the court only made a general statement that there were additional ballot papers being introduced. 

“But the court did not identify who did that. So there cannot be any criminal proceedings against anyone because no one was identified,” he told The Malaysian Insight. 

Tengku Fuad earlier today said it was “extraordinary that the EC is not standing by its own officers”.

“The EC should appeal because based on the Election Court’s findings, the returning officer and other election officers are now exposed to potential criminal liability under the Election Offences Act,” he said.

Azhar said that the court did not identify that it was the EC that introduced the ballot papers. 

Today, Anifah had filed an appeal against the Election Court ruling on August 16 that nullified his Kimanis federal seat victory in last year’s general election.

The court had cleared Anifah of bribery and graft allegations brought against him in the election court. 

However, the court declared the poll results as null and void after finding 384 additional ballot papers improperly cast in Kg Brunei and 54 ballots in SJK Cheng Meng. 

Azhar said that the EC understood and accepted the decision of the court and would not appeal against it. 

“However, if the appeal is made by Anifah and we are named as the respondent, then the EC will attend the proceedings and take part in it as necessary.

“For now, the EC will have to wait for the Court of Appeal decision or until the appeal deadline, which is on August 29 for further action. The EC is always ready to run the by-election if needed.”

Anifah had won the Kimanis seat by 156 votes, receiving a total of 11,942 votes against Karim Bujang from Warisan, who garnered 11,786 votes during GE14.

Azhar also said the EC had always stood by all its election officers and workers.

“In the Rantau by-election the EC was found guilty of not allowing the candidate go in to submit nomination papers, but stood by its officers. 

“There were some really bad findings against the returning officer and we had appealed against that decision. 

“Even when the RO was found to be in contempt of court, we took the appeal to the Federal Court and they have ordered the matter to be reheard by the high court.”

He said that the EC will continue to defend its staff despite receiving flak for appealing the matter as they felt the findings were not justified. – August 27, 2019.