KOTA MARUDU – Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) president Datuk Peter Anthony said there was no reason for the Election Commission (EC) to reject his candidacy as he is still an assemblyman.
The Melalap representative said he would no longer be an assemblyman if he had been convicted for any crime.
“There is no reason I can’t contest as I am still an assemblyman,” he told reporters after attending a meet-the-people event here.
“How can I still be an assemblyman if I had any conviction?
“If so, there would be a by-election in Melalap. But until today there isn’t any.”
According to Anthony, he has made numerous appeals to the returning officer but his candidacy was still rejected.
He added that the Sabah EC director could not do anything as the instruction came from the commission’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
Anthony also noted the rejection came about after a complaint was lodged to the EC over his candidacy.
He said he will be filing a legal petition on the matter soon and believed the court would rule in his favour.
Anthony said the fact that the EC rejected his candidacy on November 5 was an insult to the court’s decision to set aside his sentence and conviction on graft charges last August.
On nomination day, a riot occurred among the KDM president’s supporters after his candidacy was rejected by the EC.
Anthony was also briefly detained by police over the incident.
Meanwhile, KDM’s candidate for the Kota Kinabalu parliamentary seat, Datuk Seri Winston Liaw, said the party’s candidates would not be affected by the fracas in Tenom and the brief arrest of the party’s president.
“All other parties see KDM getting stronger. So I think someone is doing this very unlawful thing (in getting Anthony’s candidacy rejected).
“In the peninsula, there are many politicians who face the same situation. But they can still come out (to contest),” he said.
KDM is contesting in Beaufort, Keningau, Pensiangan, Kota Marudu, Sepanggar, and Kota Kinabalu for the coming polls. – The Vibes, November 8, 2022
