Wee to challenge election petition

‘I aim to prove every ballot was legit’

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong will challenge the election petition filed against his win in the Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat, saying he won based on support for his long years of service and commitment.

“I am prepared to challenge the petition vigorously to prove that every ballot voted for me was lawfully received.

“The truth remains that the efforts of my team can withstand any test. I can accept the fact of losing power and votes. However, I firmly reject malicious character assassination,” said the MCA deputy president in a Facebook post yesterday.

On Tuesday, Johor DAP chairman Liew Chin Tong had filed a petition at the state High Court to challenge the results of the Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat, which he lost by 303 votes.

Denying that the voter turnout was 78.7% or 36,346 of the total registered voters of 46,157, Dr Wee said an analysis of the voting trends on May 9 showed this to be no lower than 80%.

“In fact, it was at 85.5% with the Yong Peng and Semarang state seats under the constituency recording a turnout of 84.78% and 86.44%,” he said.

A final tally by the Election Commission, said Dr Wee, showed that a total of 39,485 ballot papers were issued for Yong Peng and Semarang but only 39,393 ballot papers were cast, resulting in 92 unreturned ballots.

For the Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat, he said a total of 39,474 ballot papers were issued, with only 39,380 cast and 94 unreturned ballots. There were 542 spoilt votes from the two state seats while Ayer Hitam had 556, said Dr Wee, adding that there was only a 14vote difference.

“It is not difficult to see that the tally of the ballot papers from the state seats correspond with the parliamentary seat.

“The socalled 2,478 phantom votes alleged by certain irresponsible parties is absurd. Otherwise, for the interest of justice and electoral fairness, why aren’t Yong Peng and Semarang election results being challenged by the losing candidates?” he asked.

Dr Wee said he had won with a 303vote majority due to the support from the Chinese and Malays despite a split in the Malay votes for the state and parliamentary seats.

This split, he said, meant that MCA’s stance on the Private Member’s Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act – also known as RUU355 – had caused dissatisfaction among certain groups in the Malay community.

“This may have led to them voting for the Barisan Nasional candidate from Umno in the state seat but not that from MCA in the parliamentary seat,” Dr Wee said.

He said although some media estimated a 5% Chinese support for Barisan while others put this at between 3% and 8%, he however managed to obtain 24.6% to 40% votes in four Chinesemajority new village areas. He also criticised Liew for wanting to reform the electoral system through the judicial process, adding that this should be carried out through EC and the administrative system.

“Nevertheless, I acknowledge that the loser has his right to file a petition. Fret not, the truth will prevail,” he said, describing it as an attempt to unseat the sole Chinese Opposition MP and prevent him from raising issues relevant to the multiracial community in Parliament.

Dr Wee had garnered 17,076 votes against Liew’s 16,773 votes. A third candidate, PAS’ Mardi Marwan, had 4,975 votes.