Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the act of distributing cash to voters during elections is tantamount to corruption - not charity as claimed by some.
Despite not naming anyone, Anwar (above) made the comment following PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s defence of his party distributing cash to voters during the 15th general election (GE15), claiming it was just charity.
“Giving alms is okay but to distribute cash for votes during the general election is tantamount to corruption,” he said in his speech at Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow’s Chinese New Year open house today.
Anwar added that the practice of getting "commission" and giving "charity" in elections would harm the country and society.
On Jan 3, the Terengganu Umno liaison body filed election petitions to annul the results of the recent general election for the Kuala Terengganu, Marang and Kemaman parliamentary constituencies.
Terengganu Umno chief Ahmad Said said the petition raised allegations that PAS had bribed voters by distributing financial aid from the state government through the i-Pension, i-Belia and i-Student initiatives between Nov 15 and 17, 2022 - which was just a few days before GE15.
Hadi, however, said they were merely giving “alms”, adding election laws were not violated because the cash was not distributed by the candidates or their representatives.
“According to election law, a candidate or a candidate’s representative cannot give out cash money, it is up to the public to give alms,” he claimed.
A BN candidate in GE15, Ahmad lost the Kemaman parliamentary seat to PAS’ Che Alias Hamid, who won with a majority of 27,179 votes.
Hadi retained the Marang seat with a majority of 41,729 votes – defeating three others.
Amzad Hashim, a PAS candidate who defeated three other candidates by a margin of 40,907 votes, retained the Kuala Terengganu seat.
Meanwhile, Anwar said that Malaysia has the potential to become a developed country if politicians and those in power stopped looting the nation’s wealth.
“I will no longer tolerate those who take advantage of contracts and projects to seek wealth that isn’t theirs,” he stressed.
Anwar was possibly referring to corruption practices inherent in the public procurement of projects.
As part of his anti-corruption agenda, the prime minister recently ordered his cabinet members to go through the 2021 Auditor-General’s Report with their respective ministries and act on its recommendations.
The directive was issued to ensure all issues highlighted in the report would not be repeated, especially when involving leakages of public funds. - Mkini
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