The Election Court in Kota Kinabalu today struck out an election petition filed by Parti Warisan Sabah’s candidate for the Kimanis parliamentary seat in the 14th general election, Karim Bujang, to challenge the victory of former foreign minister Anifah Aman.

Justice Supang Lian struck out the suit by Karim after allowing Anifah’s application, filed on Aug 24, to strike out Karim’s election petition on seven grounds under the Election Petition Rules 1954 and the Election Offences Act 1954 that Karim failed to comply with.

Karim was also ordered to pay RM30,000 in costs to Anifah and RM5,000 in cost for the returning officer and the Election Commission.

Anifah was represented by counsel Ansari Abdullah, Tengku Ahmad Fuad Tengku Ahmad and Rizwandean Bukhari M Borhan, while counsels Rebecca Thong, Tiong Jia Yi, Song Wei Wan and Chua Kuan E acted for Karim.

Both the returning officer and the EC were represented by counsels Muammar Julkarnain, Abdul Fikry Jaafar Abdullah and Faizal Sarbi.

Anifah won the Kimanis constituency with a 156-vote majority in the three-cornered fight, securing 11,942 votes against Karim and Parti Harapan’s Jaafar Ismail, who garnered 11,786 votes and 1,300 votes respectively.

- Bernama