Election court strikes out petition against BN’s Kunak victory

2026-03-05 - 05:33

Barisan Nasional’s Anil Jeet Singh polled 5,986 votes in a six-cornered fight during the Sabah election on Nov 29, winning by a majority of 2,118 votes. (Bernama pic) PETALING JAYA: The Kota Kinabalu election court has struck out a petition challenging the victory of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Anil Jeet Singh in the Kunak state seat following preliminary objections. The Borneo Post reported that Anil had filed preliminary objections to have the election petition struck out on legal and procedural grounds, saying it failed to comply with several mandatory requirements under the Election Petition Rules 1954 and related election laws. The petition was filed by voter Bustan @ Industan Lumantang, who questioned the validity of the election, claiming that several duplicate ballots were discovered during the counting process in a polling stream at SMK Kunak Jaya. Bustan named the Election Commission, Sabah state election officer, returning officer and Anil as the first, second, third and fourth respondents respectively. He contended that the existence of such duplicates raised concerns about the integrity of the ballot-printing process and could have affected the reliability of the overall vote count. Judge Amelati Parnell ordered Bustan to pay RM10,000 in costs to the first, second and third respondents, and RM20,000 in costs to Anil. Lawyers Syarulnizam Salleh, Nooraihan Ali and Wong Chik Kien represented Anil. Anil polled 5,986 votes in a six-cornered fight during the Sabah election on Nov 29, winning by a majority of 2,118 votes. He was appointed assistant youth development, sports advancement and creative economy minister on Dec 16.