The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH 2.0) today announces a new list of top ten offenders in the 14^th General Election (GE14) Hall of Shame on Election Offences for the week of April 27 to May 4.
This new line-up of 10 inductees into the GE14 Hall of Shame – the last to be issued for the week preceding the polling day – are listed in no specific order and are selected from over 400 verified reports, spanning electoral offences and unfair practices on nomination day, the issuance of postal ballots and one week into the campaign period.
The 10 inductees are listed as below (Further details are listed in Appendix 1):

• (5-Star Award of Shame) Hashim Abdullah, Chairman of Election of Commission: For the failure to uphold the basic constitutional right of candidates to run in the election through arbitrary, unfair and unlawful disqualification of PKR candidate for Batu parliament constituency (Tian Chua) and prevention of PKR candidate for Rantau ADUN constituency (Dr. S. Strearam) from filing his nomination papers.
• Najib Razak of BN: On 26^th April, the caretaker prime minister and Pekan candidate announced a special incentive of RM500 to all 60,000 DRB-Hicom staff, which would cost RM30 millions of taxpayers’ money, despite the fact that DRB-HICOM is not a government department but a government-linked company.
• Jamal Yunos of BN: For promising fishermen a reward of RM2,000 if they give their vote to BN and for giving out RM25,000 in a lucky draw to a voter in Sekinchan on 30^th Even though Jamal tried to justify the payment as wage and not bribery, this is simply an attempt to whitewash and a clear offence under the Election Offences Act.
• Kedah State RELA Director, Ahmad Abdul Wahab: For speaking to a crowd of RELA officers in support of BN at a BN campaign event on 1^st May, thereby showcasing biased behaviour of public officials.
• Community Development Department (KEMAS): For organising several campaign events for Barisan Nasional throughout the country despite being a government agency. This is a clear abuse and misuse of government machinery and assets.
• PAS and BN Polling Agents in Tapah: For violating the secrecy of votes (thereby breaching Section 5(6)(b) of the Election Offences Act) by listing down postal ballot paper serial numbers next to the name of the postal voter on 30^th April 2018, which carries the punishment of imprisonment for a term of not exceeding one year or to a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or both.
• Malaysian Youth Council (MBM), and accredited electoral observer: For organising an event promoting BN politicians in Negeri Sembilan on 1^st May which amounts to biased behaviour by electoral observers appointed by the Election Commission. MBM should be removed from the official election observer list of the EC.
• Ramlee Marhaban of BN: For using cash to win votes in Semporna, which he openly and unashamedly disclosed in an interview with The Star newspaper on 30^th
• Chan Quin Er of BN: For treating of food to approximately 600 people from a local community which is estimated to cost RM30,000. The event was held in SJK Choong Wen in Seputeh parliament constituency, which is another case of abuse of government assets for election campaign by political party. Furthermore, the school is also one of the polling stations and it is an election offence to display campaign materials within a distance of 50 meters from the limits of any polling station during campaign period.
• BN’s Nationwide Treating Campaigns: Candidates under BN have been frequently observed to have employed treating strategies to win votes, such as ‘Isi Minyak Percuma’, ‘Cermin Mata Percuma’ and ‘Jualan Sentuhan Rakyat’ in a big scale nationwide.

Once again, the chairman of the Election Commission, Tan Sri Mohd Hashim bin Abdullah, earned a special 5-Star Award of Shame for the second time in a row for failing to address and rectify serious abuse of power by its officers on nomination day including the unfair disqualification of incumbent MP Tian Chua (PKR) and the unfair prevention of Dr S. Strearam (also from PKR) from filing his nomination papers. The police barred the latter entry on account of not possessing an entry pass issued by the Election Commission which resulted in the uncontested win for BN candidate Mohamad Hasan, who happens to be caretaker chief minister of Negeri Sembilan.
BERSIH 2.0 notes that despite having been featured on the GE14 Hall of Shame, the Election Commission and Barisan Nasional continue to disrespect, disregard and diminish the principles of clean, free and fair elections by ignoring the Election Offences Act 1954 and proceeding with the arbitrary use of power and influence to skew the elections in favour of Barisan Nasional.
The Election Commission and its 445 enforcement teams have failed to respond to the rampant treating, vote-buying, undue use of influence and biased behaviours of public institutions; and have instead focused on taking down banners which do not comply with their arbitrary new campaign material guidelines issued on 24^th April.
BERSIH 2.0 condemns the lack of action of the Election Commission (EC) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to respond to the attempts by the ruling coalition, UMNO-led Barisan Nasional to steal GE14. The commissioners of both the EC and MACC must answer to the people and voters of Malaysia for their repeated failures to uphold the highest law in the country, the Federal Constitution.
BERSIH 2.0 strongly warns all political parties and candidates to immediately cease and halt all bad campaign strategies aimed at vote-buying and treating of voters as it is a criminal offence and may be cause to challenge an electoral win through an election petition. BERSIH 2.0 also warns all political parties and candidates against bribing and treating on election day as the campaign period officially ends at midnight, 8 May 2018.
BERSIH 2.0 also urges all political parties, candidates, civil organisations and voters to reject all forms of bribery and treating including the cash handouts and lucky draw prizes. We also urge all political parties and candidates vested in clean and fair elections to start preparing for election petition in anticipation of further attempts to diminish, skew and steal the elections.
An election petition must be submitted within 21 days from the date of the election results being gazetted. The grounds for an election petition are bribery, intimidation or other misconduct which may affect the outcome of the election, non-compliance with election laws and regulations, acts of corruption or illegal acts committed by a candidate or his agent or ineligibility of a candidate to participate in the election.
BERSIH 2.0 urges anyone who witnesses an election offence to report online 1) at aduan.pemantau.org, 2) through WhatsApp on 011-17721546 or 3) call 017-8725418 or 017-8725419.
It is the responsibility of all stakeholders to ensure that the GE14 is representative of the people’s choice for Malaysia and not the result of gerrymandering, corruption and arbitrary use of statutory powers. To view of map of electoral offences, please visit aduan.pemantau.org/map

KELUAR MENGUNDI, KALAHKAN PENCURI.
Issued by:
BERSIH 2.0 Steering Committee
 

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