PKR assemblyperson Sim Tze Tzin claimed that Pakatan Rakyat opponents have indulged yet again in dirty tactics and malicious campaigning to win the Permatang Pasir by-elections.

Speaking to newsmen after lodging a police report at Seberang Jaya this afternoon, the Pantai Jerejak state representative drew similarities between Barisan Nasional and Umno's campaigning carried out at the Permatang Pauh by-elections last year.

He alleged that he had been subjected to one such campaign when, yesterday, a circulated mobile text message portrayed him as buying votes.

In the text message, which he had also received from a reporter friend at 9pm last night, Sim said the voters were called on to get a payment of RM100 each from him before casting their votes for PAS candidate Mohd Salleh Man at the polls today.

The text message, apparently meant for Chinese voters, was typed in Mandarin.

The constituency has 20,290 voters and one postal vote, with 72.36 percent or 14,681 of the electorate being Malays, 25.85 percent or 5,244 being Chinese voters, 1.63 percent or 330 Indian voters and 0.16 percent others. It has 300 new voters.

Sim, who is PKR election coordinator tasked to woo Chinese voters in the by-election, said the text message was circulated with the intention to defame him.

"But the people of Permatang Pasir are mature. They did not believe the message and never came to see me for money," he said, calling on the police to investigate his report immediately.

Sim expects some 70 per cent of the Chinese voters to turn up today in the by-election.

Of this, he predicted some 70 percent of them to back Pakatan candidate Mohd Salleh Man, 55, who faces BN's Rohaizat Othman, 38, in a straight fight.

MAFREL received two reports

mafrel penanti by election pc 190509 jamaluddin abdullah Meanwhile, election watchdog Malaysian for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel) Penang coordinator Jamaluddin Abdullah said he had received only two reports so far on polling day.

One was for a missing name from the electoral list and the other, the existence of a party election booth ( pondok panas ) near a polling sation.

He said so far both contesting parties and supporters have been observing and abiding by the election rules by not displaying car stickers, logos, flags on their vehicles when ferrying voters to polling stations.

Aside from one or two incidents, of which one involves shouting games between rival supporters to woo voters, he said both sides have largely refrained from polling day campaign this time.

"Things have improved a lot compared to the last three held elections," he said referring to last year's elections held in Permatang Pauh and Penanti respectively.

However, he lamented over the heavy presence of police and party supporters near polling stations.

He said their heavy presence could provoke trouble and uneasiness, thus creating an intimidating atmosphere that could instil fear among voters.

"We want to bring about a calm and peaceful atmosphere to enable citizens to exercise their rights in a relax manner.

"Mafrel would bring up this issue to the EC's attention in our post mortem report.

"We surely want this is to improve in the next coming elections," Jamaluddin told Malaysiakini.