TAWAU: The Democratic Action Party’s (DAP) candidate for the Sri Tanjung state seat, Chan Foong Hing, has lodged a complaint against the Barisan Nasional (BN) for allegedly handing out ‘election goodies’ to voters in Tawau.
“It is tantamount to bribing the people obviously and the Election Commission is compelled to investigate this matter and take action against those responsible, even to the extent of disqualifying the BN candidates,” he said yesterday.
Chan claimed that even some DAP members were given the ‘election goodies’. Even though, the ‘goodies’ do not have any political logo, it is still a violation of the election law on buying of votes, said Chan who had uploaded some of the pictures provided by informers onto Facebook as proof of the act.
“The photos show a vehicle with a BN flag distributing the election goodies to voters, especially those in the Sin Onn area, where the opposition stronghold is. The residents reportedly received goodies in the form of rice, instant noodles, eggs and a RM50 ‘ang pow,” he said.
Chan also referred to a news article in Malaysiakini where political analyst, Bridget Welsh, had mentioned that the BN administration had spent a total of RM57.7 billion, since Najib took over as prime minister in April 2009 until just before the dissolution of parliament, on election-related incentives.
Bridget had written that Najib is facing an extremely difficult situation. The most important thing is he needs to win more constituencies. The past four years, he has been involved in the most expensive election campaign in South East Asia and at the same time it is also the most expensive in the Malaysian history.
The Najib’s administration has spent an estimated sum of RM4,363 per vote so far. She predicts that the government will be investing more and more money in this election campaign.
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