KOTA KINABALU:
Parti Keadilan Rakyat State liaison committee chairman Hj Ansari Abdullah said they will file an election petition to challenge the validity of Tan Sri Joseph Kurup’s victory in the Pensiangan parliamentary constituency. He said the petition will be filed as soon as the Election Commission (EC) gazettes the victory for Kurup, who took the seat uncontested. “The moment the result is gazetted, PKR will file an election petition to declare Kurup’s win to be null and void,” he told a press conference here, yesterday. The Pensiangan seat was the centre of much controversy on Sunday when Keadilan’s candidate Danny Andipai was disallowed from registering as a candidate by the EC. The situation sparked a commotion among the crowd gathered at the nomination centre in Nabawan, leading to an assault on Kurup by a man as he was on the way to his vehicle after being declared the winner of the Pensiangan seat. Danny, who was at the press conference, claimed that the decision by returning officer (RO) Bubudan OT Mojilu to reject his and independent candidate Saineh Usau’s applications was unfair. “I was made to understand that the gate would be opened at 9am and closed at 1Oam, so I arrived at 9.35am,” he said. “I was given a number, number 10, and then paid the RM15,000 deposit as required for a parliamentary candidate. The independent candidate also did the same, and he was given number 11. “Why is it that a candidate who was holding number 12 was accepted as a candidate when those who came earlier were not?” he said, referring to fellow Keadilan candidate Paul Gitang, who is vying for the Sook state seat. Danny noted that the only candidates disallowed from registering were those who intended to contest the Pensiangan parliamentary seat, whereas there was no problem for candidates in the Sook and Nabawan state seats. “I was still in the(nomination)hall when they told me they were closed. What did they mean by closed? Were they talking about the gate or the nominations? “Just to accept the nomination papers does not take a lot of time. It’s not like we were still filling out the forms, we were just waiting to hand over completed forms. “You can see that Tan Sri Kurup knows he cannot cheat at the polls, so he decided to cheat during nomination day...he claims it was a Keadilan supporter who hit him but it wasn’t just our supporters who were unhappy, even the BN supporters felt revolted by his action,” he said. Danny said that following his disqualification, he lodged a police report on the alleged unfair treatment by the EC staff, and also lodged a report with the EC.
