Pakatan: Orang Asli dept holding 'vote BN' training

Perak Pakatan Rakyat today claimed that the Tapah Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) has been holding sessions to “train” the local Orang Asli to vote for BN. 

It claimed that the training sessions, allegedly organised in cooperation with an elected representative, were conducted in a series last month in all Orang Asli villages along Jalan Pahang there. 

It added that programme participants were given two pieces of paper, which look like mock ballot papers for the Tapah parliamentary constituency and Chenderiang state constituency. 

The Orang Asli were then “forced” to vote BN on the mock ballot papers in front of a Jakoa officer and the elected representative, it claimed. 

“Those who voted BN on both the mock ballot papers were then rewarded with 5kg of rice,” Perak Pakatan said in a statement, cited by PAS organ Harakahdaily. 

Pakatan said this contravenes Section 9 of the Election Offences Act 1954 which deals with interference of the free exercise of a person’s electoral right.  

It also argued that printing a mock ballot paper breaches Section 3(j) of the same Act. 

Both Jakoa and the elected representative present are urged to explain themselves. 

Malaysiakini has contacted Tapah Jakoa, but the officer in charge of the programme is away and will only return tomorrow. 

The portal is withholding the elected representative’s identity pending a response.