Don't abuse gov't resources during by-election, Harapan leaders told

DAP Youth today cautioned Pakatan Harapan leaders not to abuse their positions in the government or its resources when campaigning in the upcoming Cameron Highlands by-election.

In a joint statement, the wing's exco members Leong Yu Sheng, Tan Tiong Yih and Woo Kah Leong said the ruling coalition must obey the election laws to ensure free and fair polls.

Leong said Harapan leaders should campaign as the members of the coalition rather than in their ministerial capacity.

The campaign should be a platform for them to introduce new policy proposals and to receive feedbacks on Harapan's performance thus far.

Woo said if Harapan leaders were to take helicopters and deploy civil servants to organise campaign events - a norm in the previous administration - then voters would feel they had picked the "lesser of two evils".

"Harapan leaders should be the role model and set a new culture for Malaysia Baharu," he added.

Tan said the constituency allocations and development funds should be based on necessity instead of bargaining power for political parties, or means to blackmail the people.

"Election Commission (EC) must monitor the election closely to ensure the BN candidate do no repeat the same offence under the election laws.

"Let’s not forget that BN has been in power for 60 years, the resources they collected in the past would be more than enough to face this by-election," they said.

They also urged the government to refrain from committing any electoral offence during the by-election.

"All unhealthy election practices must stop at once to rebuild a better Malaysia for our future," added the DAP trio.

During the May 9 polls, MIC’s C Sivarraajh won the Cameron Highlands seat with a slim majority of 567 votes. 

The Election Court had declared the seat vacant after finding in favour of a petition to nullify Sivarraajh’s victory on the basis of bribery claims. MIC decided not to appeal against the ruling. 

The by-election will be held on Jan 26, 2019.

On Oct 26, election watchdog Bersih had pointed out that PKR president Anwar Ibrahim committed six election offences on the Oct 13 Port Dickson by-election while PAS' candidate Mohd Nazari Mokhtar committed four offences. 

Among others, Bersih cited Anwar's surprise appearance at an awards ceremony for army veterans at Port Dickson's Army Museum, where no other candidates were invited. -Mkini