No bribery reports, Slim polls was the best: EC chief

Election Commission (EC) chairperson Abdul Ghani Salleh said they have not received any complaints related to bribery in the recent Slim by-election.

He said there was “none at all” of such complaints lodged with the EC but said that if there was any, it would be handed over to the MACC to be investigated.

Abdul Ghani (above), who was recently appointed to head the EC, said that he felt the Slim by-election was “the best” to him.

“In terms of complaints, we did not receive any complaint or claim about money politics, none at all.

“But what (Pejuang founder) Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed, we cannot say anything because we base this on reports.

“If there were no reports, that means this election was the best election for me,” he said to Malaysiakini yesterday.

Abdul Ghani was responding to the former prime minister, who claimed yesterday that there were many incidents of bribery in the Slim by-election.

BN candidate Mohd Zaidi Aziz won a landslide victory in the by-election with a majority of 10,945 votes, defeating two independent candidates, including a Pejuang-backed candidate.

Mahathir said they realised this issue after they studied the factors which caused their candidate to lose.

“We found that the usage of bribery was very widespread.

“Many people said they received payment. Some were brought to the voting stations on buses. They were paid the money in the buses, some were paid in vans.

“The first time, maybe they were paid RM100. After they showed they chose BN, they would receive the remaining RM150,” Mahathir said in a press conference in Putrajaya.

Malaysiakini is attempting to get verification from MACC on whether there were reports lodged of such incidents and the status of the investigations, if any. - Mkini