THE Federal Court has fixed June 19 to hear appeals by Barisan Nasional (BN) over two petitions filed to nullify general election (GE) results for the Putrajaya and Gua Musang parliamentary seats.

Lawyer Yusfarizal Yussoff, representing Bersatu vice-president Mohd Radzi Md Jidin, when contacted by Bernama confirmed the hearing date for the appeals of the election petitions.

Putrajaya Umno vice-chief Ahmad Faisal Abdul Karim filed the petition to nullify the GE results for the parliamentary seat, while Mohd Azmi Mahmood,  representative of BN candidate Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, filed the petition for the Gua Musang parliamentary seat.

Radzi, who contested on a Perikatan Nasional (PN) ticket in the GE, won in Putrajaya by defeating four-term MP Tengku Adnan Mansor of BN with a 2,310 majority in a six-cornered fight.

And PAS-Bersatu candidate Mohd Azizi Abu Naim won the Gua Musang parliamentary seat with 1,826 votes, defeating Tengku Razaleigh.

The High Court struck election petitions filed by Faisal and Azmi after allowing preliminary objections raised by Radzi and Azizi.

On March 10, the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed Radzi’s preliminary objection to strike the petition, after ruling Faisal failed to prove corrupt practices were committed by Radzi or his agent.

On February 26, the Kota Baru High Court struck Azmi’s petition after ruling the petition was filed beyond the permitted time frame of 28 days, as stated in the Election Offences Act 1954.

Faisal and Azmi subsequently filed their appeals against the High Court decisions at the Federal Court.

In his petition, Faisal sought a court order to declare Radzi should not have been declared winner of the Putrajaya seat, alleging the PN representative had given RM150 to voters as inducement for them to cast their ballots in his favour.

Azmi in his petition sought to declare the GE result for the Gua Musang seat invalid, and for the Election Commission to call by-elections for the seat. – Bernama, June 2, 2023.