The court ordered Ainal Fattah to pay costs of RM10,000 each to Shafie and the Election Commission.

Ainal, saying he was not surprised by the decision, vowed to press ahead with a second judicial review application to compel the former rural and regional development minister to “return funds” related to rural projects in Sabah.

“My main intention was never about stopping him to contest in the elections. It was always about the more important issue, that is the billions of ringgit in funds which went missing during his tenure as the rural and regional development minister,” he told FMT.

On April 17, Ainal filed an application for judicial review to stop Shafie from voting or contesting in the general election, on the grounds that he could be found guilty of corruption later.

He based the application on the assumption that the investigation against Shafie by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) could get him charged in court.

Shafie is the Warisan candidate for the Semporna federal seat and Senallang state seat in Sabah in the 14th general election (GE14) on Wednesday.

The former Umno leader was the rural and regional development minister from 2009 to 2015 when he was dropped from the Cabinet following a fallout with Prime Minister Najib Razak.

He later formed Warisan, which is cooperating with Pakatan Harapan in the current polls.