The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih) said today that a BN candidates' confession that vote-buying goes on during elections in the country must be fully investigated by the Election Commission (EC).

The EC must respond as it's capability to run free and fair elections is being challenged, said Bersih chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan.

BN's Sungai Limau candidate Ahmad Sohaimi Lazim said yesterday that government arms such as Federal Agricultural and Marketing Authority (Fama) went in to distribute fruits and chicks to voters ahead of polls.

bersih tribunal ambiga 220913"At least he is honest about what took place...he has admitted to vote buying," Ambiga (left) said when contacted by Malaysiakini. "The EC should now answer for it...it is vote-buying."

Ahmad Sohaimi was speaking at a seminar organised by the University of Malaya Centre of Democracy and Election (Umcedel), doing a post-mortem of the Nov 4 polls for the Sungai Limau state assembly seat. The strategy, however ,failed to pay off for BN.

He had lost to PAS' Mohd Azam Samat by 1,084 votes. Sohaimi said PAS had also used the same strategy when it was in government and alleged that there were other irregularities during the by-election.

Bersih has been fighting for clean and fair elections in Malaysia since 2007. After the GE13 which was riddled with complains of irregularity, Bersih had carried out a People's Tribunal in September, where it was revealed that as much as half of the 51 constituencies that was studied saw incidences of bribery.

"Everyone knows that this takes place, including the EC... It is certainly one of the issues the EC should look into but has not," said Ambiga.



alt
 
She added that it was extra worrying that even Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had denied over international TV that there was no basis to believe that vote-buying has undermined Malaysia's democracy. Bersih came under fire for saying otherwise.


Here is one candidate who has admitted to it, Ambiga said, adding that "we hope that this case will not be just swept under the carpet."

Sohaimi (right) told the seminar that election campaign could not be run on ideas alone as voters were simply asking for goodies in return for their support. 


 Here is one candidate who has admitted to it, Ambiga said, adding that "we hope that this case will not be just swept under the carpet." 


NONE
Sohaimi (right) told the seminar that election campaign could not be run on ideas alone as voters were simply asking for goodies in return for their support. 

This showed that the culture of vote-buying had been embedded among some voters, he added.

Sohaimi said this does not augur well for the future of democracy in Malaysia if it is not urgently uprooted.

"It is very worrying...The EC has an enforcement team ...why didn't they do something about it there and then?" Ambiga asked.-malaysiakini