The Malaysian Insight

MINISTERS should not campaign for candidates during by-elections as it is considered an offence and abuse of their positions, said Election Reform Committee (ERC) chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman.

He said that the appearance of ministers like Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu and Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to campaign for Port Dickson’s Pakatan Harapan candidate Anwar Ibrahim was wrong, especially as it happened during working hours.

“One or two ministers have come here, this should not be done. Stuff like this, there is no control by Election Commission on this kind of thing.

“It is the misuse of power of the ministers,” Rashid said in a press conference this morning.

The former EC chairman also said he would make recommendations in the report which will be tabled to the government against occurrences like this.

“We will recommend making this law.

“We are going to tell the people stay away from this area, don’t take advantage, don’t misuse your power and government assets,” Rashid said.

Several ministers have come down in the past two weeks to stump for Anwar in the Port Dickson by-election.

Apart from Mohamad and Dr Wan Azizah, Multimedia and Communications Minister Gobind Singh Deo has also turned up to support Anwar.

Rashid said the ERC would submit a report with more than 15 areas of recommendations, which then would be scrutinised by Putrajaya to revamp election laws before the 15th general election.

He said there were not many offences reported during the campaigning period of Saturday’s by-election, apart from one or two “mistakes” unknowingly committed by the candidates.

“There are one or two cases where I think the candidate is not aware. They got carried away because of their past experience.”

The Bersatu vice-president also said the PH government was not abusing resources like what was done by Barisan Nasional.

“There were no campaigns on television for the government candidate. Previously, there would be campaign broadcasts from morning to evening.

“There were a lot of abuses, they used government facilities and the opposition did not even a stand a chance,” Rashid said.

He urged the public to lodge a police report if they witnessed any electoral offences.

“The EC has got no powers. They can’t investigate or enforce. You need to make a report to the police,” Rashid said.

Anwar is in a seven-way battle for the seat. He is up against five independent candidates – Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, Isa Samad, Lau Seck Yan, Stevie Chan and Kan Chee Yuen – and air force veteran Mohd Nazari Mokhtar of PAS.

The Port Dickson seat fell vacant after Danyal Balagopal Abdullah of PKR, quit as MP to make way for Anwar, who is attempting a Parliament comeback.

This is in line with PH’s plan to have him take over from Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister.

In the 14th general election, Danyal got 36,225 votes, defeating Barisan Nasional’s Mogan Velayatham and Mahfuz Roslan of PAS, who received 18,515 and 6,594 votes, respectively. – October 12, 2018.