ROMPIN Providing travel allowance for voters does not constitute an offence, Election Commission chairperson Abdul Aziz Yusof said today.

Aziz said this when asked about the people in the BN Rompin by-election operations room providing "travel subsidy" to voters who had cast their ballots.

Reporters witnessed this handing out of money, outside Sekolah Kebangsaan Leban Chondong, in Rompin today, the voting day for the parliamentary seat by-election.

Aziz said it would only be an offence if the giver had specifically asked the recipient to vote for a particular party.

"Under the law, if you give money to somebody to vote for a party, and if the person really votes for that candidate, and you have evidence (to prove it), then that is wrong.

"I have asked the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the giving of subsidy to urge (voters) to come back to vote and in the MACC's perspective, this is not an offence," Aziz said.

"This is like giving out an allowance."

However, Aziz said he does not encourage such actions.

RM100 for those coming from Kuantan

According a worker who was giving out the cash in the BN operations room, voters who travel back from Kuantan can get RM100, and it is about RM200 for people who came back from Kuala Lumpur to vote. 

The voters would have to check their names on a list that prepared by the operations room staff and show their MyKad after they cast their ballot. Only after this will they be eligible to collect the subsidy.

"We do not ask them to vote for any party," the worker told Malaysiakini , saying that he is not sure as to who is behind the giving out of the money.

Just when this Malaysiakini reporter tried to take picture of the scene, a middle-aged man pulled him and said "this is not your business, lah" and told the reporter to leave the area.

"This is a party place, you are not party people… If they want to give money, that is their business," he said and escorted the reporter out of the BN operations room, during which he also denied that the money was being handed out for voting for BN.

BN is flexing its muscles and mobilising a massive election machinery in Rompin, with BN ministers and top guns coming every day during the campaign to assist its candidate, Hasan Arifin, in the battle against Nazri Ahmad of PAS.

As at 1pm, 33,402 out of the 52,744 voters have cast their ballots, accounting for 62.67 percent of the total electorate. 

Aziz said this is a high percentage as at that hour and he expects an 80 percent voter turnout today.

The by-election result, he added, could be expected by 11pm.

'Difficult to implement BM must-have'

On a related note, Aziz pointed out that it would be difficult to implement the proposal that election candidates possess at least a credit in SPM Bahasa Malaysia, as the Federal Constitution has to be amended.

“Malaysia’s law is very liberal about this. The candidate must be a Malaysian national aged above 21, have an address in Malaysia. He or she must also not be of not unsound mind, not in prison and not a bankrupt. That’s all,” Aziz ( left ) said.

In some countries, he added, the candidate even has to possess 1,000 signatures to show qualification to take part in the election, whereas no such condition exists in Malaysia.

“We have to amend the constitution to add this (condition). To amend the Federal Constitution, you must have two-thirds majority support (in Parliament).

“Not that easy if the lawmakers say ‘why should we support?’. However, the EC has the right to study it, whether it is better or otherwise.

“If you have ‘excellence’ in the SPM examination, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are fluent in speaking BM. The EC is not saying we agree, we will only study the proposal,” Aziz added.