KL's MP forced to vacate seat

KL's MP forced to vacate seat

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): A senior Malaysian opposition Member of Parliament was forced to vacate the seat he won in recent polls after a high court found his victory invalid, the national Bernama news agency reported yesterday.

Razaleigh Hamzah, a former cabinet minister but now arch-rival of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and president of the Semangat 46 party, will have to recontest his Gua Musang seat in Malaysia's eastern Kelantan state through a by-election.

The high court in Kelantan's state capital, Kota Baru, made the ruling after Hussein Ahmad, a candidate from Mahathir's United Malays National Organization (UMNO), protested his loss of the seat to Razaleigh by a technical default in April polls.

Hussein's nomination papers for the Gua Musang seat were rejected by the Election Commission after he made a mistake filling in his address.

The court ruled on Tuesday that he should not have been technically defaulted.

No date has been set for the by-election.

Several other government and opposition candidates who lost the chance to contest the elections due to technicalities are appealing in Malaysian courts.