KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The Malaysian High Court dashed the hope of an opposition figure on Friday after it dismissed a suit by Chua Tian Chang, vice president of the People's Justice Party, to challenge the disqualification decision of the Election Commission (EC).
The ruling of the high court will deal a heavy blow to Chua, a former parliament member who is attempting to hold his position in the upcoming election, which falls on May 9. It also bodes ill for the opposition alliance, which is pinning its hope on every possible seat taken to win the election.
Chua failed to secure a nomination last week, after returning officer from the EC Anwar Mohd Zain rejected him based on a fine of 2,000 ringgit (508.2 U.S. dollars), issued by a court last year for insulting a police officer.
Anwar said the clause in the constitution, that any parliament member given a fine of "no less than 2,000 ringgit" shall lose his seat or disqualified to contest, means that Chua would only be qualified to contest should the fine be 1,999.99 ringgit or less.
But Chua argued that in the previous election in 2013, he was allowed to contest though he was also given a fine of 2,000 ringgit by the court then. He asked the High Court in his suit to overthrow the EC's decision.
The incident marked the escalation of more finger-pointing and chaos in the run-up to the polling day, as both the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and the opposition alliance accused each other of conspiracy and undermining each other.
Last Friday, Mahathir Mohamad, a high-flying former prime minister now leading the opposition, accused the government of sabotaging a plane he chartered to fly to his nomination place in the northern island of Langkawi, where he will be contesting a parliament seat.
Mahathir said he finally managed to borrow a friend's plane to fly to Langkawi, after several requests were turned down, indicating the government pressured people not to lend their planes to him.
Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority issued a statement afterwards saying there was no sign of sabotage. Then, the police said they were investigating Mahathir for spreading fake news to make political gains.
