KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 — The Kemaman parliamentary seat was declared vacant by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul today after receiving notification from the Election Commission (EC).
In a statement, he said the vacancy for the seat was notified through a letter dated Oct 11 from EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh.
Johari said the notification was in line with Article 54 (1) of the Federal Constitution following the decision of the Election Judge on Sept 26 to annul the results of the 15th general election (GE15) for the Kemaman parliamentary seat.
He said the seat incumbent, Che Alias Hamid of PAS did not file an appeal up until the deadline yesterday (Oct 10).
Following this, he said the EC will hold an election to fill the vacancy within 60 days from the date of vacancy.
On Sept 26, the Terengganu Election Court nullified the victory of Che Alias, with Judge Datuk Anselm Charles Fernandis saying the petitioner, Wan Mohamad Hisham Wan Abdul Jalil (a voter) succeeded in proving that corruption had taken place with the aim of influencing voters in GE15.
In the election, Che Alias won the seat in a four-cornered fight, defeating four others, including Datuk Seri Ahmad Said of Barisan Nasional (BN) with a majority of 27,179 votes.
In June, Perikatan Nasional’s victory in the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat was also nullified by a Terengganu Election Court for the same reason.
A by-election for the seat was later held simultaneously with the six state elections held on Aug 12.
