PUTRAJAYA – The Federal Court today allowed Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Tan Sri M. Ramasamy’s appeal to send back his Segamat election petition to the election court for a full hearing.
A three-member bench comprising justices Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof, Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim, and Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan ordered the petition to be heard before another judge.
The court set aside this April 3 decision of the election court, which struck out Ramasamy’s election petition after accepting a preliminary objection raised by respondents.
The respondents named in the petition are Segamat MP R. Yuneswaran, the returning officer, and the Election Commission.
In the court’s decision, justice Zabariah remitted the petition back to the election court to hear issues pertaining to whether the campaign materials violated the election laws and bribery allegations.
The Federal Court judge (justice Zabariah) then fixed August 24 for mention of the case at the election court.
Yuneswaran, a Pakatan Harapan candidate, won the seat with a majority of 5,669 votes in the 15th general election held last year and was declared the elected member of parliament for the constituency.
He defeated Ramasamy, Perikatan Nasional’s P. Poobalan, and Pejuang’s Syed Hairoul Faizey. Ramasamy, who is MIC treasurer, stood as a candidate for BN in that parliamentary constituency.
Ramasamy subsequently filed the election petition, seeking, among other things, a declaration that the parliamentary election for the Segamat constituency was void and a declaration that Yuneswaran was not duly elected as a member of Parliament.
The election court judge Mohd Radzi Abdul Hamid had dismissed Ramasamy’s election petition after accepting the preliminary objection raised by the respondents, among others, including that Ramasamy failed to comply with Rule 15(4) of the Election Petition Rules 1954, pertaining to the particulars of his (Ramasamy’s) affidavit of service and his failure to comply with the election petition rules regarding the facts pleaded in his petition, which were incapable of sustaining the declarations sought.
Ramasamy was represented by lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, while lawyer Lau Yi Leong represented Yuneswaran, and senior federal counsel Suzana Atan appeared for the returning officer and the Election Commission. – August 18, 2023