KOTA KINABALU: The polling station head or Ketua Tempat Mengundi (KTM) at Saluran (Polling Stream) 1 Sekolah Kebangsaan Lampada for the Kota Marudu parliamentary seat in the 13th general election (GE13), Ibrahim Nasip, told the Election Court here yesterday that he did not give copies of Form 14 to Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s (PKR) polling agents because they did not ask for it.
He said there was no instruction from the Returning Officer (RO) for him to not give copies of Form 14 to the PKR polling agents.
Ibrahim, 57, who was also on duty during the 12th general election, said the vote counting process at the station went smoothly with no objections raised by any of the parties involved.
He was testifying on the seventh day hearing of a petition seeking to nullify the GE13 result for the Kota Marudu seat which was won by Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili of Barisan Nasional (BN).
The petition is being heard before Judge Datuk Yew Jen Kee.
Meanwhile, the KTM for Saluran 3 Sekolah Kebangsaan Matunggong, Wong Teck Yee, 47, also said there was no instruction from the RO to not give a copy of Form 14 to the PKR agent.
He said he prepared the Form 14 and then signed it, but the form did not have the signature of the PKR polling agent nor was there any request for a copy of the form from any of the polling agents.
Another witness, Lulin Gaying, 39, the KTM at Saluran 2 Sekolah Kebangsaan Indrason Laut,
also concurred with the other polling heads that there was no instruction from the RO to not give copies of Form 14 to PKR’s polling agents Prior to this, the PKR polling agents for the petitioner, Datuk Maijol Mahap, had claimed that the KTMs had been instructed by the RO to not give the Form 14 to anyone.
In the petition, Mahap named Ongkili as the first respondent and RO Lovita Koisun and the Election Commission (EC) as the second and third respondents, respectively.
On Aug 13, Yew had ruled that allegations of corruption against Ongkili pertaining to the contest be dropped from the petition but maintained Ongkili as the first respondent by virtue of him being the winner.
In his petition, Mahap had claimed that copies of Form 14 were not given to PKR’s polling agents.
Ongkili won by a majority of 842 votes after garnering 15,168 votes in a four-cornered fight.
Mahap obtained 14,326 votes, Star candidate Majamis Timbong (2,228 votes) while Yuntau alias Kuntau Kolod (SAPP) only managed 444 votes.
A total of 911 votes were rejected. — Bernama