KUCHING: State Election Commission (EC) director Datu Takun Sunggah said it is not against the law for political parties to display posters of their top party leaders in constituencies they are contesting.
“On behalf of EC, I wish to get the attention of all parties contesting in the 10th Sarawak state election that posters of their top party leaders at both the state and national levels are allowed to be displayed in the constituencies contested, besides the posters of their candidates and party logo,” he said in a statement released here yesterday.
He explained that the matter was in line with the policy of the EC where it was also one of the terms and conditions included in the permit issued to every candidate contesting in the state election.
He added that the ruling on the subject in the permit issued by the EC in accordance with Section 24B(4)(a), Election Offences Act 1954, states that “for any election campaign materials that contain photos, only photos of the candidate and their party top leadership are allowed to be displayed in the constituencies where they are contesting”.
He said that this would mean that it was not wrong for photos of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to be displayed in all the 71 state constituencies.
Takun pointed out that this also applied to every party contesting in this state election.
Therefore, he said, pulling down the posters of party leaders displayed in the constituencies they were contesting was unlawful as it was against the terms and conditions in the permit issued by the EC.
On the X sign on posters, he said that this had been practised since previous elections and it had been accepted by all contesting parties.
The state EC issued the statement in response to complaints made by some opposition candidates that the authority should disallow posters of the prime minister and chief minister from being displayed in various constituencies.
The issue was brought up by PKR Sarawak Youth chief Ahmad Nazib Johari last Saturday.