PUTRAJAYA: Arthur Joseph Kurup, the son of Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) President Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, retains his position as Pensiangan Member of Parliament.
This follows a unanimous decision by a five-man bench of Federal Court five-man today to uphold the Election Court’s decision to strike out the election petition brought by PKR’s Pensiangan candidate Raymond Ahuar.
The bench led by Court of Appeal President Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop dismissed Raymond’s appeal after ruling that it did not have merits.
Presiding with him were Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Zaharah Ibrahim and Federal Court judges Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed, Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Tan Sri Idrus Harun.
Justice Ahmad also ordered Raymond to pay a total of RM40,000 in costs.
The Federal Court also dismissed Raymond’s appeal against the Election Court decision on Sept 20, last year to reject his application for amendment of his election petition to include an allegation of illegal practice of election expenses.
In the 14th general election in May last year, Arthur, who is the deputy president of PBRS, won by a majority of 2,314 votes in a five-cornered contest. He garnered 11,783 votes to Raymond’s 9,469.
Arthur contested under the Barisan Nasional ticket.
In June, Raymond filed an election petition alleging that Arthur used money politics but this was dismissed by the Election Court in Kota Kinabalu in November last year.
Raymond was represented by lawyer Datuk Alex Decena while counsel Datuk Lawrence Thien Shin Hing acted for Arthur. — Bernama
