GE14 | Pakatan Harapan component parties will not be allowed to display pictures of the coalition’s chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the head of the coalition or the coalition’s preferred candidate for premiership.

DAP organising secretary Anthony Loke said he was informed of this by Election Commission officers that they may only display pictures of their election candidates and the president of the party contesting in a given constituency.

This is because Harapan has yet to be formally registered with the Registrar of Societies as a political coalition, he said.

“We have been made to understand by the EC and we have asked their officers whether we can display posters of our future prime minister Mahathir nationwide.

“The EC’s answer is no, because he said Harapan has yet to be registered. So Harapan’s chairperson is banned from election posters…

“We feel this is something that should not be banned by the EC. We want to campaign, and we want to show our leader.

“That is the right of the respective parties. Why does the EC want to interfere? That is none of the EC’s business,” he told reporters at a press conference following the Pakatan Harapan presidential council meeting today, which took place at the opposition leader’s office in Parliament.

Counting changes

Meanwhile, Mahathir complained that local authorities are giving preferential treatment to BN party flags compared to opposition party flags planted in public.

He said BN flags are not disturbed even though the election campaign period has yet to start, while opposition flags are being removed by local authorities.

According to Loke, whether flags should stay or be removed, local councils nationwide should give all parties the same treatment.

“We want the government to be fair. If cannot, that’s fine. If can, then all of us can (plant party flags). We are finding that this election has extraordinary conditions that didn’t exist before,” he said.

Loke added the EC is also mandating that parliamentary votes and state votes for each polling stream are to be counted concurrently, instead of the previous practice of counting them one after the other.

He said Harapan is opposing this on grounds that it may confuse the counting agents who may lose track trying to keep tabs on two counting processes taking place within the same room.

On another issue, Loke said another change is that the EC will not inform candidates on who will be postal voters until the day postal ballots are issued. This instead of being given the list on nomination day itself.

Loke said this would make it “challenging” for candidates who will be kept in the dark about the postal voters until the last moment.