Hj. Mohd. Noor. bin Hj. Ahmad J:

By this Petition, the petitioner, the unsuccessful candidate seeks to avoid the election of the respondent who was returned as duly elected in the election for the Johor State constituency of Pasir Gudang on 21 October 1990. The sole ground of the Petition is that a corrupt practice under s. 32(c) of the Election Offences Act 1954 was alleged to have been committed by the respondent or his agents with his consent and/or knowledge in that on 20 October 1990 at or about 8.40 p.m. until the early hours of the election day, land titles were given to voters in the said constituency at Felda Cahaya Baru in pursuance of a promise made earlier that day.

Section 11 of the Act defines and prescribes the punishment for a corrupt practice, which by subsection (l) (b) thereof includes the offence of bribery, and s. 10 provides that the persons specified therein shall be deemed guilty of the offence of bribery in the circumstances enumerated in that section. The material provision applicable to this case appears to be paragraph (a) which reads -

every person who directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his behalf, gives, lends, or a