Anifah, foreign minister in the previous federal government was declared re-elected for a fourth term with 11,942 votes while Karim was recorded as having garnered 11,786 votes.

The party’s Kimanis branch election director, Zainal Matali, said the result should be annulled and Karim declared the winner, or a by-election called.

Zainal said the returning officer had refused to stamp the Form 14 after unofficial results showed that Karim had already won the seat. The officer’s refusal caused the counting process to be interrupted.

“We have determined there was a clear case of cheating before the official result was announced on May 10,” he said.

“We also have evidence to show that the Barisan Nasional candidate, Anifah Aman, went into the counting centre twice to meet with the EC officials and not long after that, he was announced the victor.

“Karim only lost by 156 votes and we cannot accept it because before the result was announced, there were so much confusion,” he said to reporters after lodging the police report in Papar, about 45km from here.

The other candidate in the contest, Jaafar Ismail of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, only managed to get 1,300 votes.

Zainal said a few other groups will also lodge police reports calling for action against the EC.