BE CAREFUL BN, HIGH-HANDED MOVES AS THESE WILL MAKE YOU EVEN MORE UNPOPULAR: SENTUL RALLY MAY BE DEEMED ILLEGAL, WHILE DBKL TEAR DOWN FLAGS CARRYING PKR COLORS

KUALA LUMPUR — The Solidarity Talk (Ceramah Solidariti) organised by PKR in front of the Sentul Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) here, last night to introduce P. Prabakaran, an independent who will now be contesting on behalf of PKR, neither had any approval from the Election Commission nor the police.

Sentul OCPD ACP R. Munusamy when contacted by Bernama said police only received a note from Pakatan Harapan stating that there would be an election ceramah.

“They (PKR) only sent in the application for a ceramah in the evening, and no approval was given to them as the party has no candidate contesting in the area.

“Moreover, they have to provide a 10-day notice before the ceramah,” he said adding that Prabakaran too failed apply for a permit as required under the Elections Act.

Munusamy said the police would conduct investigations under Section 9 of the Peaceful Assembly Act (APA) 2012 as the organisers have flouted the law.

Munusamy said the police were at the location to keep things in check.

Prabakaran will be contesting for PKR after the party’s candidate Tian Chua exhausted his legal avenue in challenging the returning officer’s decision to disqualify him due to a RM2000 fine imposed by the courts.

The ceramah caused a traffic snarl around PPR Sri Perak, here. — Bernama

DBKL takes down colourful flags in Lucky Garden, says unrelated to GE14 parties

Authorities took down the flags in Lucky Garden last night, saying they were not related to any political parties contesting GE14. — Picture by Anith Adilah

KUALA LUMPUR — The colourful flags adorning the Lucky Garden roundabout were taken down and seized by the authorities for not having “any correlation” to the political parties contesting on May 9.

At 10.30pm last night, a joint patrol team consisting of representatives from the Election Commission (EC), Kuala Lumpur City Hall and Royal Police Malaysia deployed some 20 personnel to take down the colourful mini flags.

EC enforcement officer Nasaruddin Daharun told Malay Mail that the flags, although in the colours that represent PKR, do not bear the symbol of any political party, thus disqualifying them as campaign materials.

“We concluded that the flags do not bear any party logo. Therefore, there is no correlation between these flags — regardless of how beautiful they look — to any party contesting GE14.

“PKR can claim it’s theirs but there is no symbol that says so,” he said when met during the exercise.

He gave the analogy of how a person’s name shows their identity and background.

“Just like a name, for a Muslim, for instance, you have to have a bin or binti to show your identity and which family you come from. The same goes here.

“Only by having a party symbol can they say the flags belong to them,” he said.

Nasaruddin said the removal was done in fair judgment with the cooperation of PKR Lembah Pantai’s head of observer Affendi Abdul Ghaffar, who was also part of the patrol team.

Affendi said although the removal seemed unfair to the folks who worked hard to plant them, they should have learned from their 2013 experience and applied for a permit from the City Hall.

“The same thing happened last election. The flags were removed too, and the authorities informed them about the permit and requirements. I guess they did not think it was going to be a problem,” he said.

A handful of residents, who were involved with putting up the flags two days ago, also came to seek an explanation from the officials while the removal exercise was ongoing.

Bukit Bandaraya resident Manivannan Letchumanan, 56 defended the flag-planting, saying that it had brought the locals together more than any event he has witnessed over the past 30 years residing in the area.

“It was not meant to offend anyone. It was more of a community thing rather than political… brought so many of us together,” the IT technician said.

The authorities seized half of the mini flags, said to be thousands altogether, and respected the wishes of the residents who wanted to collect and keep the rest.

The removal exercise took the team less than half an hour to complete and the small crowd of residents dispersed by 11.15pm. -MALAY MAIL

BERNAMA / MALAY MAIL