Court to hear Anifah’s bid to review nullification

Kimanis incumbent hopes to quash order for by-election

KOTA KINABALU: Whether the Jan 18 Kimanis by-election will go ahead seems to hinge on the Federal Court decision on incumbent Datuk Seri Anifah Aman’s application to review the nullification of the result.

The Federal Court is set to sit on Friday, the eve of the nomination day, to hear out Anifah’s legal bid to review its own Dec 2 decision to uphold an Election Court ruling to nullify last year’s Kimanis election result.

The Federal Court that sat in Putrajaya yesterday allowed Anifah’s legal bid to review its decision to be heard.

Anifah’s lawyer Tengku Fuad Ahmad said that if the Federal Court ruled in their favour to review its decision, the by-election could potentially be stopped.

“This is the last legal avenue given by the court,” he said.

Anifah is hoping that through his application, the Federal Court will revoke its decision to uphold the Kimanis result nullification and quash the order for a by-election for the parliamentary seat.

Earlier this month, Anifah filed an application under Rule 137 for a revision of the Dec 2 Federal Court decision, citing the possibility of a “real danger of bias” or “risk of it” by the five-member Federal Court bench.

He sought a review contending that four of the five members earlier heard appeals by Parti

Warisan Sabah’s losing candidate for Kimanis, Datuk Karim Bujang.

The bench was led by Chief Justice Tan Sri Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who sat with Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri David Wong Dak Wah and Federal Court judges Datuk Rohana Yusuf and Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan.

At the hearing, Anifah’s counsel objected to Tengku Maimun, Wong and Nallini sitting on the Federal Court bench.

But Tengku Maimun dismissed Anifah’s application to recuse three of the judges from hearing his appeal.

The Federal Court later upheld the Election Court’s findings of discrepancies in the conduct of the election process and widespread non-compliance of election laws, which had affected the polls outcome.

Yesterday, a five-member Federal Court bench led by Justice Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh ordered all parties to file their written submissions and set Friday for the hearing.

Other judges on the panel were Justices Vernon Ong, Abdul Rahman Sebli, Zaleha Yusof and Zabariah Mohd Yusof.

Anifah, who has been the Kimanis MP since 1999, retained the seat by 156 votes against Karim in last year’s general election.

He left Umno in September 2018 and has since become an independent.