Court dismisses graft charges against Malaysian Indian MP

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 5, 2010 :

Malaysian Indian lawmaker P. Kamalanathan Thursday retained his parliamentary seat as a court dismissed allegations of corruption and electoral malpractice made by the losing candidate.

The High Court struck out former law minister Zaid Ibrahim’s charges made in an election petition against P. Kamalanathan, who had won the Hulu Selangor seat earlier this year in a keenly contested by-election.

Kamalanathan had won the contest for the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), the country’s largest Indian-based party and a constituent of the ruling alliance, Barisan Nasional (BN).

Justice Azahar Mohamed said Ibrahim, the opposition candidate, had failed to identify the recipients of the alleged bribes offered by BN, making the petition "fundamentally defective", Star Online, website of The Star reported.

Ibrahim had named Kamalanathan, Hulu Selangor parliamentary constituency returning officer Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan and the Election Commission as respondents in his petition to nullify the results of the by-election held April 25.

Hand-picked by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for the election, Kamalanathan defeated Zaid by a 1,725-vote margin.

Kamalanathan said: "I will continue to do my work as an elected MP and be better focussed on my work."