The police have got wind of syndicates organising betting on the outcome of certain hot seats in the May 20 Sarawak state elections.

Revealing this today, Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum warned that the police would come down hard on those involved.

He said they could also be detained under the Emergency Ordinance (EO) for two years at the Simpang Renggam detention centre in Johor.

"We will use the Emergency Ordinance which allows for detention without trial against them," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Johari was speaking to reporters after being briefed on the security arrangements for the election at the Sibu police headquarters. Also present was Sarawak police chief Jamal Taib.

The deputy minister advised the people not to get involved in such activities and to report to the police if they had any knowledge on them.

The hot seats are Bukit Assek, Padungan, Kota Sentosa, Meradong, Kidurong and Bukit Begunan.

9MP allocation

In another development, Johari was also asked about the allocations for the police in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP).

The deputy minister said the government had allocated RM350 million to rebuild five police stations in Sarawak.

These were the Muara Tebas marine police base in Kuching, the police station and staff quarters in Limbang, and the Kabong, Balingian and Tanjung Manis police stations.

Johari added that the government had also approved 34 other projects worth RM840 million in the 9MP under the "Built and Transfer" concept for bases, police stations, training centres, General Operations Force camps besides for the upgrading of several police stations.