Nazri: Election handouts not bribes

Nazri: We have already promised that if we won we would fulfil (our manifesto)...for example a sewing machine, if we do not give it during elections we will give it after elections, is that a crime?

KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 — Handout and goodies in the form of financial assistance to voters during elections cannot be considered as corruption, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said today.

This, according to the minister was because financial aid given to voters during an election was the federal government’s way of “fulfilling its promises” and manifestos.

“We have already promised that if we won we would fulfil (our manifesto)...for example a sewing machine, if we do not give it during elections we will give it after elections, is that a crime?

“We cannot stop this because well, we will be giving it after (elections),” said the minister during a reply to PKR Ketereh MP Ab Azizi Kadir.

The PKR MP had asked the government to state whether it considered financial assistance during elections or by-elections as a form of corruption.

Nazri also stated that six by-elections corruption cases have been investigated by The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) from 2008 to 2010.

He also said that a total of RM11,185,542.93 (11.2) million was spent on 16 by-elections since 2008. - Malaysian Insider