'Ballot papers of EC officers sold to BN for RM100 each'

A BN state seat candidate has been accused of "buying" ballot papers from Election Commission (EC) officers in order to vote on behalf of them to ensure victory for BN.

In exposing this today, PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli said one of the officers had on May 4, just a day before the 13th general election, lodged a police report on this.

Copies of the police report were given to members of the media by Rafizi during a press conference at PKR headquarters at Tropicana in Petaling Jaya this afternoon.

The report details how the EC officers were called up by the BN candidate before they passed their ballot papers to BN coalition workers.

According to Rafizi, four of the EC officers demanded back their ballot papers a day after they were sold to the BN candidate for RM100 each.

"However, when they got back their ballot papers, they found that their ballots had already been been marked," Rafizi said.

The police report names the BN candidate. Malaysiakini is withholding his name until he responds to our queries.

According to Rafizi, the officer had went to the voting centre to vote after getting back her ballot paper, and she had witnessed how the other twenty ballots of EC officers were casted into the ballot box.

'Voted under pressure'

"She still voted. She can't change the vote, (she) can only spoil it," he said, adding that he was also clueless as to whether the officer had returned the RM100.

In the police report, the EC officer claimed that she was forced to pass her ballot paper to BN, although she knew that the act is against the law.

She also listed out the series numbers of the two RM50 banknotes for the police to investigate.

"I am indeed upset, as my ballot was marked without my consent. This was done under pressure," read the report.

Commenting on this, Rafizi noted that this case was only the tip of the iceberg.

He said the postal and advance votes comprise more than 500,000 of the total votes, which he described, had been significant enough to determine the election outcome.

He added that PKR will be filing about nineteen election petitions by June 10, two days before the official deadline.

"I also learnt that PAS will have about twenty cases, and DAP about three cases that involve parliamentary seats. We will do it separately."