The High Court, which is due to hear the Kulim-Bandar Baharu election petition today, has postponed it to Aug 19.

This is the second time that the hearing for the election petition has been put off - the court was to hear the case two days ago.

Judge Balia Yusoff Wahi has last month set July 20 to hear the petition after dismissing preliminary objection raised by the winning candidate Zulkifli Nordin from PKR to strike out the petition.

The petition was filed by Umno candidate Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir on the grounds that Zulkifli had failed to submit his statement of expenditure from his 2004 general election campaign.

Under the Election Act, candidates who do not submit their statement of expenditure to the Election Commission can be disqualified from contesting in future elections.

In the 2004 general election, Zulkifli contested the Kuala Langat parliamentary seat in Selangor but lost to Umno's Dr Shafie Mohd Salleh.

In the election petition, Abdul Aziz also claimed that the returning officer had failed to act against Zulkifli despite having documents confirming his failure to submit the statement of expenditure.

Anwar’s plan derailed?

The postponement may affect PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim’s plan to make a political comeback through a by-election for the Kedah parliamentary seat.

He has said that he would make an announcement to fight a by-election “soon”.

bandar kulim bharu kedah parliament seat results 180708 Malaysiakini has reported last week that Anwar has set his eyes on Kulim-Bandar Baharu seat.

Anwar has been banned from holding political office as a result of his corruption conviction, causing him to miss the March general election. The five-year ban expired two months ago.

Interestingly, Kulim-Bandar Baharu neighbours Anwar's former seat of Permatang Pauh in Penang, which is currently by his wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

The Kulim-Bandar Baharu is a Malay-majority seat, of which 69.5 percent are Malays, 18.6 percent Chinese and 11.7 percent Indians.

In the 2008 general election, Zulkifli won the seat, which has 51, 995 voters, by a margin of 5,583.