PAS today filed an election petition to challenge the results of the Pengkalan Pasir by-election which the party claims was filled with irregularities including the existence of 'phantom voters' and bribery.

Kelantan PAS secretary Takiyuddin Hassan confirmed that the petition was filed by the party's state Youth secretary Mohd Ridza Zain ( wearing coat ) - who was an election agent for candidate Hanifa Ahmad ( right ) - at the Kota Bharu High Court this afternoon ( pix courtesy of Harakah ).

"We have a team of 10 lawyers to represent the party in the petition. The legal team is headed by a KL-based lawyer Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof who is well-versed in constitutional law. He was the former deputy dean at the Universiti Malaya law faculty," said Takiyuddin when contacted.

He however could not provide details on the 20-page petition which is believed to based on evidence collected by the party who had offered a RM15,000 reward to the anyone willing to provide information on phantom voters .

During the filing of the petition, Mohd Ridza was accompanied by Takiyuddin, Hanifa, PAS vice- president Husam Musa, lawyer Hanipa Maidin - who heads the party's special committee on the petition - and some 100 supporters.

Specific grounds

Today was the last day for the party to file the petition as the Pengkalan Pasir by-election results were gazetted on Dec 15.

The Dec 6 by-election saw victory for BN's Hanafi Mamat who defeated Hanifa with a tissue-thin majority of 134 votes. This triggered an automatic recount of the votes given that the winning margin fell below two percent.

The recount was held the next day with the BN candidate officially being declared the winner.

The by-election was called following the death of PAS incumbent Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Jaafar on Oct 31. He had defeated Hanafi at the 2004 general election by a mere 56 votes.

The lost of the seat means that PAS, which has been ruling Kelantan since 1990, has only 23 seats in the state assembly, just one more than BN's 22.

The petition will go before the Election Court and will be heard by a justice of the High Court, who will have six months to wrap up the case.

If the petition fails, an appeal can to be made to the Federal Court within 14 days of the election judge's judgment.

The Federal Court, which has also six months to complete the hearing and decide on the appeal, will be the final authority on the matter.

Under the Election Offences Act, an election petition can only be filed on "specific grounds" such as incidents involving of bribery, threats and procedural irregularities.