Anwar's early voting claims involving armed forces overboard - Hishammuddin

KLUANG: Claims by Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that armed forces personnel in Bera, Pahang, had already conducted early voting for the 15th general election (GE15) and were paid to do so are overboard, Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said.

Rebutting his claims, Hishammuddin said that Anwar's actions could be viewed as denigrating the integrity and dignity of the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF).

"His actions in dragging the MAF into his political chess game not only will upset our security forces but also the public, who are of the opinion that there should be limits to politicking," he told reporters after attending a youth event in Ngepot Kabin here last night.

Popular singer Hanifah Md Hanafiah, more popularly known as Black, and comedian Mohd Nasir Hamzah (Achey Bocey) were the entertainers who performed at the event.

Hishammuddin was refuting claims made by Anwar during a PH political talk in Kuala Terengganu yesterday that there was a military camp in Bera that had conducted early voting and that personnel were paid RM300 each.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had earlier asked Anwar to retract his claims and apologise to MAF personnel for accusing them of receiving money.

The prime minister said, however, he did not deny the possibility that what was claimed to be early voting was actually postal votes for security personnel, who can request to vote via post should they not be available to vote during early voting due to assignments.

-- BERNAMA