MACC Review Panel’s rejection of video evidence on vote buying reflect lack of will to go after corrupters!

MACC Review Panel member Hadenan Abdul Jalil

The MACC Review Panel reportedly reject the video evidence as sufficient to prosecute the vote buyers, ignoring a number of factors involved in the supply of the video evidence. The foremost of them is that the accused had admitted on his own accord that he and all other candidates in the 10th Sarawak state elections, had paid-off the voters-he only disputed that the money was for vote buying. He claimed that the money was for transport, campaign work and as consolation. So the fact of paying voters was not disputed-only that someone need to arbitrate if the payment was for those reasons mentioned by the politicians, or for buying votes!

Secondly the video evidence was given along vouchers and cheques from the Chief Minister’s Office-should the MACC be a bit proactive to check on the authenticity of these cheques to see if they were given out for vote-buying purposes? By isolating the video evidence, and speculate about it as the work of actors, shows a less than positive attitude towards provider of vital information of corruption in elections! Wonder why they never made similar speculation of the purported Anwar’s sex video to cast doubt over the video?

Read Full Post »

Election fever boost voter registrations-Assistants Registrars out-register EC, Post Offices and Govt offices!

Some 11 million people eligible to vote
May 31, 2011

Political parties are going all out to rope in new voters

KUALA LUMPUR: Political parties have been aggressively registering new voters nationwide with some 115,989 already signed up as of March.

So far some 11,811,452 people have registered as voters while 3,973,032 or 25.2 percent have yet to do so.

Election Commission (EC) chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said the registration was done by 5,686 Voter Assistant Registrars.

Read Full Post »

Ignoring rape problems in Sarawak make all citizens potential victims!

S’wak rape problem needs concerted gov’t effort
SWWS
May 28, 11

Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS) is saddened but not surprised that more rapes on vulnerable Penan women have been reported.

Since this hit the headlines back in 2008, SWWS has been conducting its Empowering Rural Girls (ERG) Project in Baram to raise awareness and to develop systems of help.

Read Full Post »

Campaign to reject vote buying candidates!

Long house residents happily distributing the vote buying money paid from the state coffer in support of Sarawak BN candidates!

Reject vote buying candidates!

MEO-Net (Malaysian Election Observers Network) feel compelled to present more evidences of vote buying in the 10th Sarawak state elections because of the persistent denial by politicians involved that the pay-off to voters were for the purpose of buying their votes. Since a politician in the centre of vote-buying accusation Mr Joseph Mauh anak Ekeh has come out to admit to the pay-off to voters in his constituency we consider that we need not conceal a photograph of those who are caught in distributing cash to the voters in a long house, identified in the politician’s constituency in N52 Tamin. In addition to this we are putting forward more damning evidences in the forms of payment vouchers from the Chief Minister’s office –dishing out Rm15 000.00 in one case to a long house, and in another case, a payment voucher and a cheque of Rm1000.00, for another long house recipient. A video on the vote buying, which is extended from a previous one on the issue, but added with new damning evidences,  is here.

Read Full Post »

Did Masing pay voters as claimed by his Vice-president?

James Masing's deputy implied that Masing was involved in paying off voters in last state elections

Apart from Joseph Mauh who claimed that he has prove that all candidates in 10th Sarawak state elections have paid-off voters (which he denied was the same as `vote buying’) there is another web site which claimed that James Masing’s party did pay off his voters in Pelagus here (in Chinese)! Reportedly he stationed RELA members at each long house to stop other candidates in Pelagus to pay the voters in the long houses-but his party alone can pay RM50.00 to each voter. Was it effective? Reportedly it was: in 2008 general election their supporters managed to nab their opponent,  when he tried to drive in the long houses with a car load of cash! The vote buyer then was taken to the police and the case stopped there! So that were the records-which can be strengthened if more people in the know can forward some corroboration!

But despite that PRS lost to independent George Lagong in the Pelagus seat.

The contradiction is not lost on many commentators when PRS filed election petition to nullify election result in Pelagus on account of `money politics’ ! May be after PRS presented their evidence in court they may be answered by the accused in the same way: the payment were just for transports and consolation. We await Masing’s answer to this one.

Read Full Post »

Masing stung by pay-a-voter accusation corroborated by his vice-president!

J. Masing has threatened to staged a `incredible hulk' rampage before! Recently he had also hinted at the head-hunting pass of the Ibans.

James Masing reportedly (see below) rebutted the claim by MEO-Net that payments made to voters was rampant in the 10th Sarawak State Elections-a claim where his party colleague Joseph Mauh corroborated by saying that every candidate-included Masing, invovled in! And strange as it is the politician does not see any contradiction between his denial and his party’s filing of an election petition against the winner in Pelagus on account of violation of the Election Offenses Act 1954.He challenged the loser in the Tamin seat to file a similar election petition-forgetting that few election petitions could be upheld by the election court which adopted a strange policy on deciding on whether there were violations. The policy is: only if the violation affects who the winner is-then the petition can be upheld. Practically you can violate the law to the point before the tipping point eg vote buying, threaten voters, impersonation of voters etc, and get away with it! This is a travesty of justice as according to the Election Offenses Act 1954 any violation even on a single voter on 1 occasion is a violation which warrant the full weight of punishment! Under such a self-proclaimed court practice election petitions cannot be hoped to penalise the culprits-as few cases of complaints have ever been upheld by the Malaysian election court! So: no election petitions does not mean that there are no complaints!!!

Since he does not admit to vote buying but his party vice-president admit to paying voters MEO-Net will release even more damning evidence of vote buying this Sunday(May 29) in a Penang talk at 8.00pm, at its office in D’ Space (62 Weld Quay, 3rd floor, Penang). The evidences  will challenge voters to decide if the claim that the payments are just for transport subsidy! All Malaysians who are against corruption in elections are welcome to turn up. Admission is free. Enq.013-5900339.

Masing slams ‘wild allegations’ of vote buying

Posted on May 28, 2011, Saturday

KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Dato Sri Dr James Jemut Masing yesterday rubbished so-called reports of vote buying in Tamin as “wild allegations”.

“If indeed there was (vote buying), as alleged, why didn’t they file election petition for vote buying?” he said when contacted.

Read Full Post »

Election Offenses Act: penalty for bribery/corruption include fines, imprisonment & disqualification as candidate!

Laws of Malaysia ACT 5
Bribery
10. The following persons shall be deemed guilty of the offence
of bribery:
(a) every person who, before, during or after an election,
directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person
on his behalf, gives, lends, or agrees to give or lend, or
offers, promises, or promises to procure or to endeavour
to procure, any money or valuable consideration to or for
any elector or voter, or to or for any person on behalf of
any elector or voter or to or for any other person, in order
to induce any elector or voter to vote or refrain from
voting, or corruptly does any such act as aforesaid on
account of such elector or voter having voted or
refrained from voting at any election;

Read Full Post »

Mock election in mid-2011-will there be mock allocations?

Elections in Malaysia mst come with government allocations to help the incumbent parties win the elections. So can a mock-election be without some mock/real government allocations? Anyway joke aside- the possibility of a real election after a bit of mock-announcements may well lead to a real general election especially when enough of mock/real allocations are announced to sweeten the ground. The occasion for the mock-election may well be a real announcement! Watch out!

Election dry run in mid-2011

May 27, 2011

Party leaders will go to the ground to monitor the mock election, says Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Umno supreme council meeting today decided to hold an election dry run in the middle of this year in preparation for the next general election.

Read Full Post »

Lack of communication facilities can cause low voter constituencies-but why not improving communication networks?

For constituencies with low communication facilities EC may increase the number of constituencies and thus lower the voters number. This may cause it to deviate further away from the 1-person-1-vote principle that is important for any democracy where every citizen/voter has the same say. Therefore: instead of letting low communication facilities dictate our constituency size-whether area or voter wise-why not improve the communication connections? Certainly commercial considerations would not allow such network to be built soon-but is not the function of the government to provide the communication facilities where commercial providers fail to do so?

EC To Look Into Bung Mokhtar’s Request For Seat

Friday, 27 May 2011 18:15

KUALA LUMPUR — The Election Commission (EC) will look into the request by Kinabatangan member of parliament Bung Mokhtar Radin for the creation of another state seat in the vast constituency.

Read Full Post »

Unregistered eligible citizens down to 25.2%-but how about Sarawakians?

As national figure for unregistered eligible citizens have gone down to 25.2% due to greater awareness of the right to vote the question remain: what happen to the unregistered voters in Sarawak-the all time champion from the back?

The 3.9 million Malaysians aged 21 and above have been advised to register as voters fast so as not to affect their chances of voting in the coming general election.

Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said the advice was given as the process for voting eligibility would take two to three months.

Read Full Post »