GE14 | In an advertisement posted on its Facebook page, radio station BFM took a dig at the Election Commission (EC) over the move to cut out Dr Mahathir Mohamad's face from Pakatan Harapan's posters.

The advertisement was on BFM's election coverage for May 9, polling day for the 14th general election.

Titled, “Who will be the next Prime Minister of Malaysia?”, the advert featured an image of a smiling caretaker prime minister Najib Abdul Razak next to an individual standing with his arms crossed and his face covered.

The move to cut out Mahathir's image from the posters and banners had raised the ire of various quarters and drew the condemnation of netizens on social media.

Even caretaker defence minister and Umno vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein disagreed with the move.

“There are many ways to enforce the rules and regulations, but it is not proper to cut out the face of Mahathir from the billboard.

"If the billboard is not right, bring it down, not cut the photos from the billboard,” he had said.

According to EC's new guidelines, candidates can only use photos of only two leaders of a political party - the president and deputy president, or their equivalent - on campaign materials, other than the photo of the candidate.

As for the two leaders, they must be from the party which the candidate represents. Images of other officials are not permitted.

However, Pakatan Harapan leaders dismissed the rule as nonsensical, arguing that Mahathir was their prime minister candidate and therefore his image should be on the posters and banners.