In a bid to counter allegations of vote buying that is said will peak in the rural constituencies of Sarawak tonight, Pakatan Rakyat is deploying its campaign workers and ‘spies' to camp in longhouses to collect possible evidence of money politics.

Vote buying is said to be rampant during nights before polling days, especially in the Iban areas. Natives in the longhouses will stay up the whole night, waiting for agents from political parties to visit them with cash handouts.

Malaysiakini was told by a kapitan (headman of a Chinese village longhouse) that a name list of voters had been submitted to polling agents from the BN, who would distribute the money tonight, according to the list.

NONE Election campaign directors from PKR and DAP based in various rural constituencies said they were aware of the ‘carpet bombing' strategy to pump money into the constituencies at the eleventh hour, and they have made the necessary preparations to counter this.

"Maybe we can't send people to all the longhouses, but we want to send out the strongest message possible to our rival that 'we are watching you'," a PKR campaign director contacted by Malaysiakini said.

The DAP in Sri Aman has adopted a more aggressive approach - offering cash rewards to whistleblowers who can capture vote-buying on their mobile phones or camera.

"A reliable source told us that RM1 million has been withdrawn from a bank in Sri Aman," said DAP Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi ( above, left ), who has been stationed in Sri Aman to campaign for the party's Simanggang candidate Leon Donald.

Ooi also named a tuai rumah and a Sri Aman local councillor in his microblogging website Twitter, who he said were vote-buying agents.

However, in Malay majority rural constituencies such as Beting Maro , where PAS is said to have the best chance of making a historical breakthrough, money politics is not a pressing issue.

"We don't have any specific strategy to counter vote-buying. What we have done is to remind the voters, every day, that no matter how much money they are given, they ought to vote for PAS," the party's campaign officer Jamaludin Ishak said.