YOURSAY | ‘Justice Azimah Omar’s admirable handling of Rantau election petition does great credit to the judiciary.’

Umno No 2 loses Rantau seat, court orders fresh polls

Anonymous_3b6c1f0c: What a waste of taxpayers’ money which could have been avoided had the Election Commission (EC) acted honestly and with integrity.

This is another instance of an independent constitutional agency flouting the rule of law by shamelessly behaving unconstitutionally, and the result is to waste more of our money having to overturn an injustice and organise a fresh election.

I wonder where will Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad find enough people of integrity to sit in and manage all the constitutional bodies and agencies.

Gerard Lourdesamy: Well done, Justice Azimah Omar. Her Ladyship has delivered a sound judgment based on facts and the law.

Her admirable handling of the election petition and her firm belief in upholding the Federal Constitution and the democratic process has done great credit to the judiciary as the final bastion against abuse of power and corruption.

Anonymous 2327531438397239: Kudos to Justice Azimah. Justice has been done.

However, there was no ruling on whether both the respective candidates in the previous election should be the ones to contest the vacant seat.

Let us not speculate but leave it to Pakatan Harapan and the opposition to decide on their candidates.

Parliament must move forward to amend the election law to right the biased gerrymandering by the previous government and put in place provisions to ensure fair and equitable delineations with proportional representations.

Make sure we have the right people to carry out the job without fear or favour.

EmEmKay: It is refreshing to see that (at least after GE14) and with the Harapan government, the Election Court has more teeth now after having its teeth knocked out over the past six decades.

Roger 5201: Why is returning officer Amino Agus Suyub only ordered to pay RM30,000 in costs?

He should be paying for the cost of this new election.

Anonymous_1419577444: This is where the fun starts. Who will represent Harapan? The natural choice will be PKR’s Rantau candidate in GE14, Dr S Streram.

He deserves a shot at this after being so persistent in getting justice. Hands down, I will vote for Streram.

Cogito Ergo Sum: This is a Malay-majority area. Streram will probably not be fielded.

In a by-election, Umno will use all the dirty tricks, including racist sentiments to push their bigoted agenda. But the message is clear: Umno-BN could never have won any elections if all things were equal from the start.

Anonymous_1535762813: It's about time there was some justice. All the other election petitions for other Harapan candidates were not in favour of them but in favour of BN, so it would have been a travesty if the court ruling was not in favour of Streram this time.

I’m still sad about the Sabah election petitions and the one in Johor where Harapan’s Ayer Hitam candidate Liew Chin Tong lost.

Dingy: A fine of RM30,000 is not enough to deter future occurrences of such cases in which a candidate is not allowed to enter the nomination centre to register as a candidate.

Rantau voters must come out in full force to show BN’s Rantau candidate Mohamad Hasan the exit.

Anonymous 2362021442199789: Bring it on. Now we can see if there is still remaining support for BN, or whether voters are unhappy with Harapan for failing to fulfil their manifesto promises in many instances. Let the voters decide freely.

Bersih calls for action against Rantau returning officer

Jasmine: I totally agree with Bersih’s stand on this affair. I am disappointed that this being such an important case in terms of a returning officer’s official conduct, EC chief Azhar Harun is yet to study the matter and is defensive about initiating any action.

No doubt this was before his time, but as the EC’s chairperson, and as a man who had freely espoused much criticism against all things gone wrong previously, one would expect Azhar to be at the forefront of the fight against abuses within the EC before his time.

This means having the moral courage to guillotine heads of compromised officials within an organisation or those tasked to assist in its honest and effective work. No pussyfooting, please.

Represent the people, Azhar!

The Wakandan: Many appointed EC officials had obviously abused their power and been biased to the then-opposition candidates.

Many candidates were disqualified from standing for election, sometimes over very minor mistakes in filling the forms. It was as if they were discouraged to stand for election.

Of course, almost none of BN candidates were ever disqualified. It is high time that the EC be revamped and its election rules be made simple so as to avoid disqualification of candidates over trivial matters.

Anonymous #69337042: The returning officer is the district officer of Rantau. This civil servant must be punished for his wrongdoings, otherwise all right-thinking people can never forget this extremely unfair election incident.

We do empathise with Streram for the injustice done to him as the victim of the incompetent EC during GE14.

Anonymous_2e7168df: Agreed. The EC must be independent and carry out its designated duties without fear or favour.

To make the EC more accountable, officers there should be made accountable. Court action is required to instil its function without fear or favour.

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