A father and son who lost in the recent Sarawak polls filed election petitions to declare the results for the Krian and Layar seats null and void today.

Sarawak National Party (Snap) secretary-general Edmund Stanley Jugol (left) and unsuccessful candidate for the Krian state seat, filed a petition to declare the election of SPDP deputy president and state assistant minister Peter Nyarok null and void on the grounds of alleged bribery and corruption.

His son, Snap Youth leader Dayrell Walter Entrie, 34, and the unsuccessful candidate for the Layar state seat filed his petition to declare the election of Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu as null and void allegedly on the same grounds.
The petitioners' lawyer, Dominique Ng, filed the petitions at 10.30am at the Kuching High Court Registry.

Dayrell, a businessman cum lawyer, stood on a Snap ticket in Layar and lost to Jabu, who is also PBB deputy president, in a three-cornered fight. He polled 1090 votes against the BN candidate's 3767 votes while the third candidate Independent Peter John polled only 105 votes and lost his deposit.

Edmund polled 2695 votes in a straight fight with Nyarok who polled 4784 votes in a straight fight in the predominantly Iban state seat of Krian.

In public interest

In a joint press statement, the duo said their election petitions were filed not out of vengeance but solely to uphold and protect what they called public interest pertaining to a clean, fair and free election in the future.

"Vote buying, inducement, and in some instances, intimidation are unlawful under the law and is a criminal act," they said, adding that elections could never be fair and free if these unlawful acts persisted.

They added: "What we are doing is in line with our party's commitment to uphold our struggle to protect public interest as required under the Malaysian Constitution and election laws and regulations."

"The constitution and the laws of the country promote and maintain parliamentary democracy and its processes," they said.

Today is the last day for unsuccessful candidates to file their election petitions. Under existing election laws, election petitions must be filed in within 21 days from the date of the election results are gazetted.

Three elections have been filed so far. The first was by Baru Bian (right), the unsuccessful Snap candidate for Ba'kelalan and a well-known Orang Ulu lawyer, against the election of the BN candidate Nelson Balang, also on the grounds of alleged bribery and corruption.

The laws also stipulate that hearing of election petitions must take place within six months after they were filed.