PUTRAJAYA (Dec 12): The Federal Court today ruled that the Jasin parliamentary seat in Melaka remains with Barisan Nasional's Datuk Ahmad Hamzah.

This apex court dismissed the appeal brought by Pakatan Harapan candidate Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan, who lost in the May 9 general election last year.

The unanimous decision was made by a five-member bench comprising Chief Justice Tan Sri Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed and Federal Court judges Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, Datuk Vernon Ong and Datuk P Nalini.

"We ruled that although there are deficiencies, it does not affect the outcome of the results," said Justice Tengku Maimun in dismissing the appeal.

Ahmad's lawyer Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun and Election Commission (EC) senior federal counsel Azizan Arshad confirmed the decision to theedgemarkets.com when contacted today.
Hafarizam said Khairuddin has been ordered to pay costs of RM30,000 to Ahmad and RM50,000 to the EC.

In addition, the apex court also ordered Ahmad to pay RM10,000 costs as it also dismissed his appeal.

It was previously reported that the Election Court in Kuala Lumpur had dismissed Khairuddin's election petition.

During the last general election, Ahmad obtained 26,650 votes in comparison to 26,341 for Khairuddin and 8,860 for Abdul Alim Shapie of PAS.