Court retains BN’s R Vidyananthan as assemblyman

KUALA LUMPUR: R Vidyananthan, f rom MIC, remains the s tate assemblyman for Kahang, in Johor, after the high Court here yesterday dismissed an election petition filed by Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia ( Bersatu) candidate Noorlihan Ariffin to nullify the 14th general election result for the seat which was won by the Barisan Nasional ( BN) candidate.

Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali dismissed the petition after allowing applications by Vidyananthan, returning officer for the constituency, Nasri Md Ali, and the Election Commission ( EC) to strike out the petition.

In the judgment, Mohd Nazlan said all three respondents had successfully established sufficient facts to justify striking out Noorlihan’s petition.

“Therefore, the court dismisses the election petition and declare the first respondent (Vidyananthan) as the duly elected assemblyman for Kahang,” he added.

He also ordered Noorlihan to pay cost of RM10,000 to the three respondents.

Vidyananthan won the Kahang state seat in the last general election after obtaining 10,786 votes against Noorlina who secured 7,907 votes.

Noorlihan was represented by a pebal of five lawyers, including Shahir Ab Razak, Azizi Iskandar and Raihanah Ashriqin Ariffin, while lawyer Datuk Syed Faisal Syed Abdullah represented Vidyananthan, and lawyer Zulhelmi Wakiman@ Wagiman represented the returning officer and the EC.