Penang PPBM chief may petition for recount of votes

GEORGE TOWN: Penang PPBM chairman Marzuki Yahya will meet with his lawyers to discuss filing a petition to recount the votes for the Tasek Gelugor parliamentary seat, which he lost to Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Shabudin Yahaya by a mere 81 votes.
Shabudin, the incumbent, received 18,547 votes, while Marzuki obtained 18,466 votes. Rizal Hafiz Ruslan of PAS garnered 14,891 votes.
"We have to wait for the 21 days for the Election Commission to gazette the results before I can dispute the outcome," Marzuki said today.
"I was disappointed with the returning officer as he continued to deny my election agent's requests to recount the votes.
"The incumbent won by 81 votes, but there were 689 spoilt votes. What I don't understand is the 297 unreturned ballot papers, so I need an explanation," he said.
He added that he was in Kuala Lumpur during vote counting and his representative had lodged a report at the Sungai Dua police station on the matter on Friday.