Chartered flights paid for by 'friends of BN', says Ku Nan

BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor has denied PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's claims that "dubious" voters from East Malaysia will be flown in chartered flights to the peninsula to vote on Sunday. 

Bernama quoted him as saying that the flights were in fact organised and paid for by "friends of BN" to send "registered" voters back to their hometowns to vote. 

"There is no substance whatsoever to opposition allegations that passengers were anything other than registered Malaysian voters," he reportedly said. 

Anwar said his party has obtained photographic and documented evidence that 16 chartered flights have been flying to the peninsula everyday from various locations in East Malaysia.

He also claimed that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was involved in purported operations to fly in the voters.

According to the national news agency, the PMO officials however denied it. In a brief statement, the spokesperson said: "The Prime
Minister's Office denies any involvement in these flights."

Meanwhile, Tengku Adnan also reportedly defended the move, saying that it is normal for political parties and NGOs to encourage voters to return to their polling centres. 

He claimed that the opposition had chartered buses to ferry voters back from Singapore, and that pro-electoral reform group Bersih had paid to fly Malaysians back from Shanghai and Hong Kong. 

"The opposition is casting doubts about the fairness of the electoral system in a cynical attempt to undermine Malaysia’s democracy. 

"It is a calculated campaign to discredit the electoral system ahead of the election. The opposition are preparing an excuse for their likely loss," he was quoted as saying. 

At a press conference in Petaling Jaya today, Anwar (right) also said that PKR has obtained a copy of email communications within Malaysian Airlines (MAS) that made a direct reference to the PMO in relation to the chartered flights.

MAS has however denied that it is ferrying phantom voters ahead of the polling day. 

"MAS wishes to clarify that all chartered flights in the national carrier’s system are commercial chartered flights," The Star Onlinequoted it as saying today.