The police had allegedly prevented a candidate from the Students Party (PMN) from contesting in the Kepala Batas parliamentary constituency against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

parti mahasiswa negara campaign 260208 01 PMN pro-term president Azlan Zainal ( left ) claimed that the police had blocked him, their candidate Zainulfaqar Yaacob and witness Maar Balqis Nur Mohammed, from entering the nomination centre on Sunday.

He said the trio, who were accompanied by some 700 supporters, had arrived at the nomination centre on time (9am) to submit the nomination forms.

But the police had delayed them for an hour, resulting in them missing the deadline (10am).

Expressing disappointment, Azlan said he could not understand why the police had behaved in such a manner.

"We were treated like criminals. They took our IC and searched our bags and confiscated our nomination documents," he said in a statement yesterday.

parti mahasiswa negara campaign 260208 02 Zainulfaqar was to contest as an independent since PMN has yet to be registered.

Once the ‘delay’ with the police came to an end, Azlan said only the PMN candidate and two others were allowed to enter the nomination centre.

"The police should have allowed at least five people in. The candidate and the proposer, the seconder and two witnesses," he said.

EC’s late response

Azlan also questioned the late reaction of Election Commission (EC) officials whom he accused of conspiring with the police to ensure that the PMN candidate did not contest.

"The EC officials only came to explain to the police after the nomination time limit expired. We want to know why?" he asked.

Contacted later, Penang EC chief Ahmad Shafee described this as a mere allegation. He said other independent candidates faced no problems in submitting their nomination forms.

He added that the police do not have the right to prevent candidates from entering the nomination centre.

While the PMN candidate was not expected to pose a threat to Abdullah, fielding him there was seen by observers as a symbolic message sent by the students to the government.

Kepala Batas will see a straight fight between Abdullah and PAS candidate Subri Arshad.