Citing a high number of spoilt votes and unreturned ballots in the seat, Marzuki said he had appealed to the Election Commission’s (EC) returning officer for a recount but was turned down.

Yesterday, the EC announced that the Tasek Gelugor seat was retained by Barisan Nasional incumbent Shabudin Yahaya with an 81-vote majority.

Marzuki, who is also Penang PPBM chief, said they had good grounds to ask for a recount as there were a record 689 spoilt votes and 297 unreturned ballots.

“I want to know why there are so many spoilt votes. We made a simple request but it was denied,” he said when contacted.

In the EC’s final tally yesterday, Shabudin received 18,547 votes with Marzuki close behind at 18,466. PAS’ Rizal Hafiz Ruslan received 14,891 votes.

Marzuki said he would also be lodging a police report on the matter against the EC and the returning officer today.