KUCHING: Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) vice president Johnical Rayong has filed an election petition against the Election Commission (EC) over the result of the Dec 19 general election.
According to his lawyer Clement Wong, there are three grounds for the said petition, namely; bribery, non-compliance with the provision of any written law under the Election Offences Act 1954 and corruption.
“We will further reveal what are in the grounds of bribery when the time comes.
“Meanwhile, for the non-compliance, one of the facts of the case is about the lateness of the ballot box which arrived at the counting centre.
“So basically, there are three grounds that we filed for the petition,” he said when met by the media at the Kuching High Court on Tuesday (Jan 3).
Commenting on the case, Johnical explained that the petition was filed due to the returning officer (RO) refusing to recount the votes on Nov 19.
“I was not satisfied that the small majority margin of the votes, which is exactly 100 votes. I had requested for them to recount the vote but they refused to do so.
“Furthermore until this day, the reason behind the refusal is still unknown,” he said.
Recalling that day, he said that the last ballot box arrived at 9:30 pm at the Dewan Sukan Lubok Antu counting centre from SK Ijok and the final result was out at about 10pm.
“By right, the voting time was supposed to be closed at 5:30 pm. Moreover, the driving distance for the places is about 45 minutes and no boat rides are needed in between.
“As such, I am pleased to inform you that my legal team of PSB lawyers has filed the election petition in regards to the 15th general election (GE15) results,” he added.
For the record, Johnical was a PSB candidate for Lubok Antu during the GE15.
In the four cornered fight, the Lubok Antu parliamentary seat was won by Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) greenhorn Roy Angau Gingkoi, who polled 6,644 votes compared to Johnical who received 6,544 votes.
Meanwhile, the incumbent candidate Jugah Muyang from Perikatan Nasional polled 5,360 votes and Pakatan Harapan’s Langga Lias garnered only 746 votes.
