EC officer in Rantau fiasco is former Umno leader, claims Rafizi

GE14 | The Election Commission (EC) officer, who recently prevented Pakatan Harapan's candidate for the Rantau seat Dr S Streram from entering the nomination centre to file his papers for the 14th general election, is a former Umno information chief, claimed PKR today.

PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli in a statement said the individual had also actively campaigned for caretaker Negeri Sembilan menteri besar Mohamad Hasan and incumbent Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin.

It was reported yesterday that Khairy had served a writ of summons on Rafizi for alleging he had conspired with Mohamad to influence the EC to bar Streram from entering the nomination centre for not bringing his candidate pass as required.

Mohamad, who is the incumbent for the Rantau seat since 2004, won the seat unopposed, as a result.

Rantau is a state seat under the parliamentary seat of Rembau.

In today's statement, Rafizi confirmed receiving the writ of summons from Khairy's lawyers and said he will let his own lawyer handle it.

However, he raised a few questions for Khairy to answer, in regard to the EC officer involved.

"Over the past few days, netizens have shown proof, in the form of videos and photographs from Facebook, which confirms that the EC officer who prevented Streram is the former information chief of the Rembau Umno Youth division.

"Since his identity was known to the public and he was criticised, he had removed his Facebook page," said Rafizi, adding that the said officer had prior to that, even admitted on his Facebook page, that he was the officer on duty during the fiasco.

Therefore, Khairy has the responsibility to "come clean" on the matter, especially to voters in Rantau and Rembau, by explaining whether he knew the said officer, noted Rafizi.

"Did he (Khairy) know that an Umno Youth member and former Rembau Umno Youth information chief was stopping a Pakatan Harapan candidate from submitting his nomination?

"Does he know that candidate pass is not a requirement in election laws but falls under the discretion of EC's returning officer?" he asked.

Rafizi also wanted to know what action did Khairy take as a national leader who has the responsibility to ensure clean elections, when the fiasco happened for more than two hours on April 28, nomination day. 

"Khairy can bully me by suing but he cannot erase these questions which will be spoken by the rakyat, especially the voters in Rembau.

"Suing me so promptly shows that Khairy is worried about incurring voters' wrath (especially Indians'), which can affect his chances in Rembau," he said. - Mkini