GE14 report blames BN for bribery, handouts during campaign

The report lists 46 alleged cases of bribery and vote-buying, and 196 cases of gifts given to voters.

KUALA LUMPUR: A report prepared by Bersih 2.0 and two other NGOs on the 14th general election has blamed Barisan Nasional for bribery, vote-buying, giving of gifts and biased behaviour by public institutions.

The report was jointly compiled by electoral reform group Bersih 2.0, human rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) and Pusat Komuniti Masyarakat (Komas).

Its “GE14 Election Observation Report” listed 46 alleged cases of bribery and vote-buying and 196 cases of gift handouts in the run-up to the May 9 polls.

It claimed the majority of these offences involved BN.

“This report presents comprehensive evidence that GE14 was neither free nor fair,” the 114-page report stated.

The most common cases of treating were handing out free reading glasses to voters, free petrol, lucky draws, giving out cheques to Felda settlers, BR1M payments and handing out money to Islamic institutions.

The report said there were more than 250 reported cases of use of government machinery and giving out of undue government inducements, with at least RM5 billion worth of taxpayers’ funds either announced during campaign events or distributed after the dissolution of Parliament.

“The largest payout was made by the then caretaker prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the launch of the BN manifesto after the dissolution of Parliament, with RM3.71 billion worth of additional Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) announced,” the report said.

It said the government and authorities did not take steps to protect the integrity of the general election from bribery and corruption.

“There was also no attempt to curb government handouts and the use of government machinery,” it said.

The report also claimed public institutions, including the Election Commission (EC), displayed bias and favoured the then BN government to win.

It noted that despite the overwhelming attempts by key public institutions to ensure a BN victory, the people decided to cast their votes for Pakatan Harapan and this saw BN lose control of the federal government for the first time since Merdeka and PAS grabbing two states.

The report said out of the 79 seats won by BN, 70 of them were from the smallest 122 seats. The seats won by PH had an average of 77,943 voters compared with 46,836 voters for seats won by BN. - FMT