PKR vice-president N Surendran has accused BN of using the Immigration Act to prevent Pakatan Rakyat from effectively campaigning in Balingian.

In a statement today, he described this as a blatant disregard of the electoral process.

Surendran was referring to the Sarawak government's denial of entry to PKR leaders Saifuddin Nasution, Tian Chua and Rafizi Ramli.

"This was an arrogant, unconstitutional and undemocratic act by the state government and new chief minister Adnan Satem," he added.

Surendran said the state government deliberately breached Section 67 of the Immigration Act 1959/63 in refusing entry to the three leaders.

"Section 67 states that Sarawak cannot deny entry where the sole purpose of the persons seeking entry is to engage in 'legitimate political activity.'

"The trio had tried to enter Sarawak to campaign in the ongoing Balingian by-election. It is shocking that the Sarawak BN government has no hesitation to act in such a lawless manner, in disregard of the clear provisions of the Immigration Act," he added.

Surendran pointed out that the move was also in violation of Article 9(2) of the Federal Constitution which guarantees freedom of movement within the Federation.

"Although Sarawak has the power to deny entry to West Malaysians, this power must be exercised strictly within the limits of the Federal Constitution as prescribed in Article 9(3) of the Constitution and the Immigration Act.

"The real purpose of immigration control, as stated by the Cobbold Commission in 1962, was to prevent the sparsely populated East Malaysia to be overwhelmed by an influx of West Malaysians.

"It was never the intention for immigration controls to be misused to prevent legitimate political activity," he added.