Federal Court reserves decision on Pensiangan pools

Kurup's Pensiangan Parliament seat is safe for now...

Pensiangan consists of 2 state seats - Nabawan and Sook, both won by Barisan Nasional candidates in the last general election in March 2008.

Pensiangan is located deep in the interior of Sabah, situated more than 200 km from Kota Kinabalu.

The parliamentary seat has more than 17,000 registered voters - mainly the Muruts communities...

Kurup contested for the first time in a Parliament seat in Pensiangan, March last year, having switched from his Sook state seat.

He won the seat uncontested after the returning officer for Pensiangan, Bubudan Mojiliu, rejected the nomination papers of 2 candidates - from PKR and an independent candidate.

He was subsequently appointed Deputy Minister of Rural and Regional Development.

Kurup is the president of Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah, PBRS - a Barisan Nasional component party in Sabah.

PBRS was set up by Kurup in 1994 after he left Parti Bersatu Sabah, PBS.

Apart from Kurup, PBRS presently has another assemblyman - Datuk Ellron Alfred Angin who won in the Sook state seat in the March general election.

Ellron was a former national athlete, having competed in the men 100 metres in the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, India.

Here is the full report of the Pensiangan case by Bernama, the Malaysian national news agency.

Federal Court reserves decision on Pensiangan polls

(bernama)

KOTA KINABALU: The Federal Court on Thursday reserved decision in an appeal by Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRs) president Tan Sri Joseph Kurup to quash the nullification of his election to the Pensiangan parliamentary seat in the March 8 general election.

Appeal Court President Tan Sri Alauddin Mohd Sheriff, who sat with Chief Justice of Malaya Datuk Arifin Zakaria and Federal Court judge Datuk Nik Hashim Abd Rahman, said the judgment would be delivered at a date yet to be fixed.

Kurup, represented by leading counsel, Mariati Robert, wanted the country's highest court to set aside the Election Court's decision declaring Pensiangan election result null and void.

Kurup won the seat unopposed on nomination day in the 12th general election after the returning officer rejected the nomination papers of Danny Anthony Andipai of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and another candidate.

He was subsequently appointed Deputy Rural and Regional Development Minister.
Andipai then petitioned to the election court to nullify the election result, naming Kurup and the returning officer, Bubudan OT Majalu, as respondents.

Election judge David Wong Tak Wah, in allowing the petition on Sept 8 last year, ruled that the wrongful rejection of the nomination papers had breached Andipai's constitutional right to take part in the election and the written law relating to the conduct of the election.

In his 36-page judgment, Wong said the decision of the deputy director of the Sabah Election Commission to accept Andipai's nomination papers was final and could not be overruled by the returning officer, Bubudan OT Majalu, under the pretext that there was an objection during the objection period.

The deputy director was exercising a power provided for by law in making the decision and Bubudan's decision to uphold the objection was a wrong decision, he ruled.

Senior federal counsel Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, in his submission Thursday, said the election judge had failed to observe that Andipai did not comply with any election law when arguing on Section 32B of the Election Offences Act.

He said it was stipulated that nomination papers should be submitted between 9am and 10am but Andipai submitted his papers at 10.25am, which was beyond the stipulated time. - Bernama