Jeffrey keeps Keningau parliamentary seat

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Solidariti Tanahairku (STAR) president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, who won a slim majority of 45 votes against a Parti Warisan Sabah candidate, retained his Keningau parliamentary seat after the Election Court here yesterday struck out the election petition challenging his victory.

In his reserved decision, Justice Ravinthran Paramaguru struck out the petition by Jikulin Nointin@ Anastasius after allowing a application filed by Jeffrey to quash the petition.

Apart from that, the court also ordered Jikulin to pay RM10,000 in cost to Jeffrey.

In the application, Jeffrey or Gapari Katingan@ Geoffry Kitingan had named Jikulin as the sole respondent while in Jikulin's petition, he had named Jeffrey, the returning officer (RO) of Keningau parliamentary seat and the Election Commission (EC) as the first, second and third respondents respectively.

However, the court did not award any cost in favour of the RO and EC, who had taken a "neutral position" in this application.

In the petition which was filed in June this year, Jikulin sought for the election of Jeffrey declared to be void; further and/or in the alternative, Jeffrey was not duly elected or returned for the said parliamentary and the petitioner be declared as being duly elected and ought to have been returned.

Counsels Tengku Fuad Tengku Ahmad and Henry Gudid represented Jeffrey while Jikulin was represented by counsels Benjamin Chin and Chong Kian Ming.

In the 14th general election held on May 9, Jeffrey won 13,286 votes while Jikulin garnered 13,241 votes in the six-cornered fight with Barisan Nasional, Parti Cinta Sabah and two independent candidates.