JUDGMENT

VT Singham J:

This is an election petition by Dr. Shafie bin Abu Bakar, first petitioner, who was a candidate duly nominated to contest the election for the Selangor State constituency of N. 26 Bangi (petition 1"); En. Hasan bin Mohamed Ali, second petitioner, a candidate duly nominated to contest the election for the Selangor State Constituency of N. 8 Sungai Burung ("petition 2") and En. Abdul Ghani bin Samsudin, third petitioner, a candidate duly nominated to contest the election for the Selangor Parliamentary Constituency of P. 95 Tanjong Karang ("petition 3"). The respondents to all the petitions are the Returning Officer ("first respondent"), the Election Commission ("second respondent") and the Returned candidate ("third respondent") in each of the abovenamed Constituency respectively. For reasons I have alluded to earlier in my ruling on 29 June 2004 in respect of the Notice of Motion (encl. 8), the first respondent in Petition 1 is no longer a party in the said petition and any reference to respondents in Petition 1 must necessarily refer to the second and third respondents only.

In para. 2 of all the petitions it is stated that the election was held on 21 March 2004. The result for the respective constituency was gazetted on 12 April 2004. Before I proceed to consider the preliminary objections raised by the respondents at the outset it is appropriate for me to state that the first petitioner's application to serve the petition on the first respondent outside the time stipulated for the service of the same in Petition 1 was dismissed on 29 June 2004 for reasons stated in my oral judgment which contains my grounds.

Under Election Offences Act 1954, ss. 38(1) save where proviso (a) or (b) applies, an election petition shall be presented within 21 days of the date of publication of the result of the election in the Gazette. (see art. Federal Constitution, arts. 118. Under r. 15 of the Election Petition Rules 1954, notice of the petition, accompanied by a copy thereof, shall, within 15 days of the presentation of the petition, be served by the petitioner on the respondent. Such service may be effected either by delivering personally the notice and a copy of the petition to the respondent or by sending the same by prepaid registered post addressed to the respondent at his usual or last known place of residence or business or by posting a notice on the notice board of the High Court in the State in which that constituency or electoral ward is situated and by publishing a notice in a national language newspaper and in any other newspaper circulating within the constituency or electoral ward or in which the election was held stating that such petition has been presented and a copy of the petition may be obtained by the respondent free of charge on application at the office of the registrar.

I shall now deal with the various allegations as set out by the petitioners in their petitions, all three petitions allege that the second respondent had illegally extended the polling time in contravention of regs. 11(5) and 3(5) of the Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981 and that the third respondents were at the time of their election persons disqualified for election, pursuant to s. 6(1)(c) of the Eighth Schedule of the Federal Constitution and art. Federal Constitution, arts. 64(1)(c) of the Selangor State Constitution.

The petitioners in Petitions 2 and 3 separately allege that the first and second respondents did not comply with reg. 14A of the Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981 which concerns the use of an authoritative text of electoral rolls. Additionally, Petitions 1 and 3 also set out other grounds to avoid the election. For ease of reference, I have enumerated these grounds in the order in which the petitions are presented. Before I proceed to deal with the preliminary objections raised by the Honourable Attorney General for the second respondent in Petition 1 and for the second and th