The PAS candidate for the Sik parliamentary constituency, Azizan Abdul Razak (photo), has filed a petition seeking to nullify the election of the Barisan Nasional's Dr Wan Azmi Ariffin to the seat in the last general election.

According to Bernama, Kedah PAS legal advisor Mohamed Taulan Rasul said today that the petition was filed at the high court registry here last Thursday by Azizan's representative and election agent, Muhammad Sanusi Mohamed Noor.

Among the grounds was that the PAS candidate was not given Form 14, which is the voting statement after the vote tally, Taulan, who is also Tokai state assemblyman, told a news conference.

The party was also unhappy with the difference in the number of spoilt votes verified after the initial count and that announced after a recount, he said, adding that there was an increase from 875 to 1,287.

"This could cause the whole tallying process to be disputed and will affect the validity of the election results," he said, adding voter turnout on polling day at the constituency was 31,682 but a recount the following day showed 30,469, a difference of 1,213.

Nevertheless, the Election Commission gazetted 31,682 as the turnout and not the recounted number which should have been the case, he said.

PAS had appointed counsel Darshan Singh Khaira to handle the petition which is the 24th filed to date by the party for the 11th general election in March.

In the March 21 general election, Wan Azmi garnered 15,357 to beat Azizan with a 319-vote majority.

DAP petitions

Meanwhile, DAP said it is planning to challenge the general election results for the state seats of Pandamaran in Selangor and Api-Api in Sabah.

"Our candidates in both these seats have agreed in principle to file the petitions," said Ngeh Koo Ham, who heads the party's legal committee for election petitions in Ipoh.

The Pandamaran and Api-Api seats were won by Barisan Nasional's Datuk Teh Kim Poo and Dr Yee Moh Chai respectively.

Ngeh, who is Perak DAP chairman, said yesterday the DAP was also considering filing petitions in two other constituencies in Johor and Perak but a decision would only be made later today.

Tomorrow is the last day for the filing of election petitions, following the gazetting of the election results on April 12.