Anifah keeps Kimanis seat after petition thrown out

KOTA KINABALU: Former foreign minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman will get to keep his Kimanis parliamentary seat after the Election Court threw out an election petition filed by GE14 candidate Datuk Karim Bujang of Parti Warisan Sabah.

Judge Supang Lian struck out the petition yesterday as the petitioner had failed to comply with the Election Petition Rules on several issues. Among them were that the petition had failed to state both dates of advance polling date of May 5 and the polling date.

Sufficient facts were also not provided to sustain the petition. As such, the petition was dismissed.

Karim had alleged that votebuying had occurred when he challenged Anifah’s May 9 victory win in Kimanis. Anifah, who was the Barisan Nasional candidate for Kimanis, won by a slim 156-vote majority in GE14 that saw a three-cornered contest.

Anifah garnered 11,942 votes while Karim got 11,786 votes. Third challenger Jaafar Ismail from Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah got 1,300 votes. Anifah is now an independent MP after leaving Umno in September.

The decision on Kimanis is the last of nine election petitions filed by Warisan and its partner PKR following GE14.

The Election Court has struck out all the petitions, which mainly concerned alleged vote-buying.

Among the election petitions were from Anifah’s elder brother and former chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman for his Sungai Sibuag state seat and Sabah STAR president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan for his Keningau parliamentary seat.