Both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat practised vote buying at the recent Hulu Selangor by-election according to the NGO, My Election Watch (MEW).

my election watch mew hulu selangor by-election report 270410 liew meng seng Committee member Liew Meng Seng ( right ) told reporters in a press conference today that this was among the irregularities observed during the by-election.

"Vote buying has become a de facto competition between the state and federal government, which elections were never meant to be," he said.

Pictures of paved roads, leaders giving donations and distributing rice were shown at the press conference as proof of these practices.

Liew suggested that the Election Commission and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should investigate the dubious practices thoroughly.

"No public allocations, tendering of new projects or new projects should be made known as soon as an election is announced to prevent corruption," he added.

Public debate

The NGO also suggested that public debate be made compulsory should there be demand from the electorate.

"Public debates would reduce costs for campaigning as well as giving candidates sufficient exposure to the voters, compared to current style of buying voters," he explained.

The newly formed volunteer based organisation had deployed about 20 members to observe the by-election.

MEW found that over 14,000 voters had their polling stations changed from the one they attended in the previous election, while 233 were moved out of the constituency without notice.

It recommended that:

1. Only gazetted electoral rolls were to be used.

2. In order to allow public scrutiny of new voters, the new applicants list should be exhibited online.

3. Voters registration should be a continuing process.

4. Automatic voter registration should be considered.

mafrel penanti by election pc 190509 ong boon keong When asked if they had made a report to the MACC or the police on these irregularities, committee member Ong Boon Keong ( left ) said that they could did not.

"The police is only concerned about criminal activities while there were too many constraints to report to MACC," he said.

Ong explained that if a report is made to MACC, thereafter the person who had made the report cannot talk about it in the open and they would not be told of the progress of the investigation.

"Perhaps this is why they have not received a single complaint during this by-election. There are just too many obstacles to make a report," he added.

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