The Malaysian Insight

THE new permit requirement for election campaigns, which was introduced in Tanjung Piai today, was to ensure peace and prevent clashes between supporters of rival candidates, police said.

Johor police chief Mohd Kamarudin Md Din told The Malaysian Insight this measure was not to prevent campaigning by any candidate but to ensure no untoward incidents occur when supporters from opposing parties meet at the same place.

“There have been incidents during this campaign period where there was provocation when opposing supporters met.

“Some incidents could have turned ugly if we had not stepped in,” Kamarudin said.

He said this permit was not something new and that the only difference was, this time they wanted the campaign organisers to list down the place and time when the candidate will be making his or her rounds.

Kamarudin said by asking the candidates to state the time and place of their ceramah or meet-the-people sessions, police will know if other parties will also be there at the same time.

This way, he said, police can increase their presence at a particular place to maintain peace.

Kamarudin added that this was not decided in the spur of the moment.

“We discussed this with the Election Commission.

“We also explained this to the various party officials,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

He said police decided to take this measure after several incidents where supporters almost clashed following provocations.

Earlier today Election Commission chairman Azhar Azizan Harun hit out at critics of these new licensing requirements, saying the remarks were “driven by bad faith”.

His target was Barisan Nasional’s (BN) parliamentary leader Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who insinuated that the EC was partisan by saying: “Now there is a new rule. I don’t understand the EC. They are supposed to be an independent body, not controlled by the government.”

Azhar said the EC was not involved in the new police permit requirements for walkabouts and door to door visits in Tg Piai because it was a police decision.

Police permits are required by law for ceramahs, while the EC’s duties are to conduct elections.

The Tg Piai by-election is slated for November 16 but early voting was carried out today with 280 police personnel casting their ballots.

The by-election was called following the death of incumbent Md Farid Md Rafik, 42, from Pakatan Harapan (PH) on September 21 due to heart complications.

The contest is a six-horse race involving PH candidate Karmaine Sardini, BN’s Wee Jeck Seng, Wendy Subramaniam (Gerakan), Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz (president of Barisan Jemaah Islamiah) and two independent candidates – Ang Chuan Lock and Faridah Aryani Abdul Ghaffar.

Apart from the 280 early voters, the Tg Piai electoral roll for has 52,698 ordinary voters and eight absentee voters. – November 12, 2019.