A military personnel was accused of spying and gathering data at a PKR booth outside a polling centre.

The man, who later identified himself as Sargeant Wong from Sabah, was alleged to have recorded voter turnout data at the booth and sending it out hourly through his phone.

PKR activists had initially assumed that Wong ( photo, in black ) was a party worker because he was wearing party related t-shirt and was at the SJK (C) Jit Sin A and B booth since 8.30am.

"We feel a little bit suspicious as he keeps jotting down information on a paper and send it to someone each every hour.

"Around 2pm, we question him about his identity, then he admit that his is a army personnel and assigned by his superior to do so.

"We check his smartphone and found that there is a WhatsApp group called 'BN Team'," said party worker D Suhana from Selangor.

PKR vice-president Tian Chua and central committee member R Sivarasa later arrived to question the man.

Masqueraded as PKR worker

Sivarasa said Wong revealed that he is based in Kedah but was assigned to the Permatang Pauh by-election.

"He masqueraded as our member and was collecting data on how many voters gone to the polling station.

"According to him, there is another colleague who stationed at BN side and there are similar team in every polling district.

"He verified the data collected from our counter and forwarded to his superior, one Major Jazimin.

"After we expose his identity, he called Jazimin to deal with us but the later only confirmed that he instructed Sergeant Wong to observe the security in this area and never ask him to collect any data.

"But since they refused to show any form of identification, we had no choice but to send them to police station," he said.

Sivarasa said it was difficult to believe Jazimin said as they have clear evidence to prove that Wong was indeed collecting and sending data to others.

"What is the role of our military in this place? We would like to ask the government and Election Commission: How could this happen?

"The military has nothing to do with elections. They should be a independent, profesional and non-partisan," said Sivarasa.

Moonlighting army man?

Similarly, Chua told reporters that the military should be collecting information on security matters, such as terrorist threats, but should have no role in an election.

"They are now spying on a legitimate electoral prosess and we see it as a clear cut of abuse of power by using public institution for their own benefit.

"Now, there are two possibilities. First, Wong is just following order and we should question his superior.

"But since Zajimin has denied giving such directive, then he (Wong) could have been moonlighting for BN.

"Either way, this is an abuse of our military," said Chua.