Nothing wrong with giving travel allowance to voters - EC
Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said it is not an offence to provide travel allowance to voters to vote.
It is not an offence for a political party to provide travel allowance to voters to go and cast their votes, said Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof.
He said he had also checked with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the matter and was told that such acts cannot be deemed as bribe.
However, he clarified that the act can only be constituted as offence if the person giving the allowance asks the voter to vote for a certain candidate.
“For example, if a person gives you money for flight tickets to Sabah or Sarawak. The person cannot say that you must vote for a particular candidate or to show prove of whom you had voted. That cannot be done,” he said at a press conference in conjunction with the Rompin by-election today.
He said it is difficult to prove that a person had voted for a particular candidate.
He said if the allowances are given to help the voter to carry out their responsibility, then it cannot be deemed as an offence under the EC rules.
“No, this is not against the election rules. This is like giving them allowances,” Abdul Aziz said.
There were talks that several voters have been given money as travel allowances by political parties in the Rompin by-election.
Although the practice is not against the law, Abdul Aziz stressed that the EC does not encourage such acts.
The Rompin by-election will witness a straight fight between Hasan and Ahmad Nazri of PAS to fill the vacancy following the death of incumbent Tan Sri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis who died in a helicopter crash in Semenyih, Selangor on April 4.
In the last general election, Jamaluddin, who was also chairman of the 1Malaysia People's Housing (PR1MA) scheme retained the seat he had held for 23 years after defeating former PAS Central Women's chief Nuridah Mohd Salleh with a 15,114 vote-majority.
The polling centers will be closed at 5pm and results will be announced tonight. There are 53,294 voters in Rompin.
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