KUALA LUMPUR: Pas youth chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari said that he respects the court's decision in annulling the party's victory for the Kemaman parliamentary seat and leaves it to the leadership to appeal on the matter.
Ahmad Fadhli who is also the Pasir Mas member of parliament, said this when contacted following yesterday's decision by Terengganu Election Court to annul Che Alias Hamid's victory in the seat for the 15th General Election (GE15).
"If the party decides not to appeal to save time, of course there will be a by-election and the people's money will have to be used to handle this by-election.
"However, we vow to defend the Kemaman parliamentary seat again in the by-election with a larger majority.
"But for now, Pas and Perikatan Nasional (PN) have not yet made a decision (to appeal)."
He had also commented over the inconsistencies by authorities on what constitutes as election bribery as the Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had done by announcing a grant of RM100,000 for the Central Development Authority (Ketengah) youth association and RM250,000 for the Terengganu Youth Council during the recent state elections.
"It is quite strange when the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) itself can declare that government allocations during the election season are not a form of bribery like what the deputy prime minister himself did in Terengganu when campaigning for the recent state elections.
"This is in contrast to what the court ruled yesterday that all forms of state government assistance during the general election campaign is a form of bribery aimed at influencing voters."
Yesterday, Judge Datuk Anselm Charles Fernandis had said the petitioner, voter Wan Mohamad Hisham Wan Abdul Jalil succeeded in proving that corruption had taken place with the aim of influencing voters in GE15.
The court also ordered the respondent to pay RM30,000 to the petitioner.
Wan Mohd Hisham's lawyer Amin Othman said the judge ruled that there was an element of bribery at several official state government events through the i-Belia and i-Siswa assistance funds that were distributed to voters during the GE15 campaign period.
On Feb 12, Wan Mohd Hisham's petition was struck out after the High Court accepted the preliminary objections raised by the respondents in the case.
However, the Federal Court, on May 2, overturned the lower court decision and ordered the case to be sent back to the High Court for full hearing on the merits.
The court said the pleadings in both election petitions were sufficient.
Che Alias won the seat with a 65,714-vote majority, beating Barisan Nasional's Datuk Seri Ahmad Said, PKR's Hasuni Sudin and Pejuang's Rosli Ab Ghani.