Court declared Sanglang seat goes to PAS

The Federal Court here Tuesday declared Hashim Jasin of PAS as the rightful winner for the Sanglang state seat in Perlis in the 8 March general election.

The Kangar Election Court on June 18 declared the seat won by Barisan Nasional’s Abdullah Hassan to be vacant following a petition filed by Hashim.

On June 27, Hashim, who is the Kedah PAS commissioner, filed an appeal at the High Court in Kangar to be declared the winner of the Sanglang state constituency.

The appeal, filed through his lawyer Zulmi Sabri, was submitted to High Court senior assistant registrar Khairulshuhadah Yaakob for forwarding to the Federal Court.

Hashim had two weeks from June 17 to appeal against the Election Court decision to declare the Sanglang state seat vacant.

Justice Zainal Adzam Abdul Ghani had found for Hashim but declined to declare him the winner.

Justice Zainal explained that the court had no jurisdiction over the matter as Section 35 (V) of the Election Offences Act 1954 that had given the court such powers had been abolished in 2003.

Hashim lost the seat by 149 votes to Barisan Nasional’s Abdullah in the March 8 general election.

On April 23, Hashim had filed a petition challenging the election results on grounds of errors during the ballot counting process.

The court had left it to the Election Commission to decide on the by-election date. (TheStar)