A police report was lodged against Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mustapa Mohamad yesterday for allegedly abusing his power in the National Economic Action Council (NEAC) during the March general election.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Youth wing deputy chief Faizal Sanusi lodged the report at the Dang Wangi police station.

His report was based on the election petitions filed by PAS against Mustapa's Jeli parliamentary and Air Lanas state seats after the general election. The election petitions however were struck out last month.

In the petitions' affidavit, PAS has attached a letter handwritten and signed by Mustapa with the NEAC letterhead that urged the people to ensure his victory in Jeli and Air Lanas, as well as the two other state seats under his parliamentary constituency. He was then the NEAC executive director.

" Saudara , I attach herewith a little contribution to help in the election campaign. I hope we can all ensure that I win in Jeli and Air Lanas while Mr Adhan (Kechik) in Bukit Bunga and Mr Aziz (Derashid) in Kuala Balah," the letter read ( pix ).

Mustapa is also the Umno Kelantan liaison chief.

Corrupt elements

Faizal said the police should initiate investigation against Mustapa as to whether he had abused his position in NEAC and influenced the voters to vote for him.

"I believe this is an offence that could be investigated under charges of power abuse and I believe it falls under the offences which contains corrupt elements," he claimed.

Apart from the NEAC letter, the petition also claimed Mustapa had violated the Election Offences Act and asked the court to nullify the polls result.

The minister was alleged to have bought votes with cash amounting to RM78,040 and offering other goods such as cigarettes, sarung , kain pelikat and Surat Yasin to his voters on various occasions through among others, his wife and brother.

Among the highest separate payment that he had allegedly made was RM65,000, which he paid to a voter to be distributed to the 'subordinates'.

Malaysiakini understands that the alleged corrupt practice by Mustapa was one of the reasons that PAS and Umno had struck a deal to forgo their election petitions in Kelantan and Terengganu.

While PAS was aiming to keep the Kelantan state, Umno had wanted to ensure Mustapa's government positions and party posts would not be jeopardised by any court decision or the revelation of the alleged corrupt practice if the petition was heard in court.

On June 23, the Kota Baru High Court struck out all - except for the Pasir Puteh parliamentary seat- election petitions filed by BN and PAS in Kelantan, including Jeli and Air Lanas.

On July 4, the Kuala Terengganu High Court also struck out all nine petitions filed by BN and PAS.