The Bersih secretariat office in Petaling Jaya was broken into this morning, with RM600 in petty cash, handphones, digital cameras and a voice recorder taken away.

NONE However, a steering committee member of the coalition for free and fair elections, Maria Chin Abdullah ( left ), believes "there is no political motivation" to the burglary.

Maria said the secretariat staff who opened the office at 8.30am spotted a man wearing a red cap running away through the kitchen door.

"The burglar left an orange skin and half a cup of water on a table," she said, adding that the office had been ransacked.

The secretariat would consider installing an alarm system and closed-circuit television cameras to ward off any future break-in, Maria said.

A secretariat staff member, Mandeep Singh, told Malaysiakini that Bersih has lodged a police report.

A police forensic team was investigating the scene this afternoon.

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