Works Minister S. Samy Vellu's lost a bid in the Taiping elections court to strike out an election petition by DAP candidate Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj for the Sungei Siput parliament seat.

The judge Wan Adnan dismissed with costs Samy's motion filed via High Court rules, saying that the motion should be filed under the Election Offences Act 1954 and not through the High Court's rules.

Soon after the judge's finding, Samy's counsel objected to the election petition on another ground - that the plaintiff had not "served" the petition according to procedure.

Jeyakumar told malaysiakini the judge's ruling today was a "victory of sorts", although whether the election petition to challenge Samy's electoral win at last November's polls could proceed would only be decided on July 3.

At the polling, Samy had won the seat for BN with 17,500 votes, while Jeyakumar polled 12,200 votes.