KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has ordered the prime minister and three others to file their defence in response to a suit by the opposition for allegedly overspending in their 13th general election (GE13) campaign.

Lawyer Choo Shi Jiu, who appeared together with Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun to represent Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, said their client must file his defence by Oct 1.

“The deputy registrar (Norfauzani Mohd Nordin) has also given instructions that the defendants are also at liberty to file other interlocutory applications by Oct 9,” he told reporters after a case management.

He said the next case management will be before judicial commissioner Mohd Zaki Wahab on Oct 9.

Others named as defendants are Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and the Election Commission (EC).

Tengku Adnan has been given until Sept 15, and 1MDB and the EC until Sept 14 to file their defence.

On Aug 12, PKR filed the suit against Najib for violating election laws following The Wall Street Journal’s report of US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) found in the prime minister’s personal accounts.

On Aug 3, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, in an unsigned statement, said the cash was merely a donation.

The plaintiffs in the suit are de facto PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is serving a jail sentence for a sodomy conviction, Lembah Pantai member of parliament (MP) Nurul Izzah Anwar, Batu MP Tian Chua, former PKR secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and New Hope Movement member Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

Nurul Izzah has said that the facts of the case expose corruption and various corrupt tactics used by BN to win the GE13.

“It is obvious that the RM2.6 billion used is more than 26 times the allowed amount as outlined by Malaysian laws,” Nurul Izzah told a press conference on Aug 12.

She said Section 19 of the Election Offences Act limits electoral spending to RM100,000 and RM200,000 for a state and parliamentary candidate respectively.

Nurul Izzah said the EC had openly ignored the corruption. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on September 4, 2015.