The Arrogance of the ruling government

NEWS ANALYSIS:
Outcome of Pasir Putih polls petition never in doubt
By Zubaidah Abu Bakar | NST 24 June 2004
Available from http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Thursday
/Columns/20040624083518/Article/indexb_html


ONE more parliamentary seat to add to the already overwhelming majority the Barisan Nasional has in Parliament. No difference to Pas’ wafer-thin control of the Kelantan State Government.

And finally, peace of mind for Pas that it can continue to rule the State without fears it may lose control through a court decision.

In a nutshell, this is what the decision by the High Court to nullify the election of Pas’ Kalthom Othman as the Pasir Putih MP and also to strike out nine other petitions filed by the BN and Pas involving both state and parliamentary constituencies means.

There are no more petitions challenging either state or parliamentary results which means with Pasir Putih being added on to the BN’s scoreboard, there will be no other changes to the March election results.

There was never any doubt that the BN would be declared the winner for Pasir Putih because from the beginning, all parties agreed that Kalthom had been wrongly declared the winner when the votes were really in favour of the BN’s Che Min Che Ahmad, the former deputy director-general of the Malaysian Islamic Development Department.