At an event yesterday (November 11), Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Ministerial candidate Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim alleged that members of Malaysia’s armed forces have already started to vote for the GE15 by post, ahead of the designated day for early polling.
He said that he has credible evidence of illegal voting taking place and that it was against the rules set by the Election Commission (EC) which is that early voting will only take place on November 15.
“They voted in the constituency of Bera and were paid RM300. I urge the EC to take stern action so as not to pollute the election this year.”
Simply a malicious accusation
Meanwhile, caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob stated that the allegation made by Anwar is a lie and a malicious accusation against the Malaysian Armed Forces.
He said that Anwar’s allegation had tarnished the image of the security forces and insulted the military personnel not only in Bera, but also nationwide.
“The accusation that the military personnel were paid (to vote) is a malicious accusation. Do not insult them like that.”
“I call on Anwar to retract the accusation and apologise, not to me, but to the military personnel who were accused of being paid to vote and everything,” he told reporters at an event yesterday (November 11).
However, he did not refute the possibility that the military personnel cast their ballots as postal voters, saying that “under the Election Commission Act, there are categories of postal voters, early voters and normal voters.”
Anwar questioned why this was allowed to happen in the first place
“I am asking that this be corrected, meaning, those votes made today by soldiers in Bera must all be voided and voting must take place again on November 15. The democratic process must be fair,” he added.
Anwar also questioned why the EC had allowed this to happen, while urging the commission to contact the camp commandant where the alleged voting took place and take immediate action.
“I’m worried that there could be aspects of money, coercion and cheating taking place, because there is evidence. I’ve seen the evidence … But they use threats, so we’ll have to take care of those whistleblowers.”
What do you think of Anwar’s accusations? Could there be some truth in it?
Also read: Hannah Yeoh: Ismail Sabri is a Poster Boy Who Cannot Lead M’sia as Rakyat Face New Challenges
