A police report has been said to be filed against People’s Action Party (PAP)’s Ong Ye Kung on Sunday (5 July) over the offence of abetting a primary school child to participate in an election activity.
As seen by TOC, a person said that that he had lodged a police report against Mr Ong over a “possible offence of having abetted a primary school child to participate in an election activity under s83 Parliamentary Elections Act rw s 107 Penal Code, punishable under s83(5) of the same Act”.
“Being an ‘arrestable offence’, if the police suspect the offence has been committed they have the discretion of arresting Mr Ong without a warrant,” the person wrote.
Noting that he was reluctant to make police report initially, the person however reasoned that, “it seems that there are people out there that seem intent on turning election campaigning into an exercise of fear.”
According to the person who filed the police report, the police have also started to investigate the allegations against Mr Ong.
“I received a telephone call from one IO Lam from Tanglin Div who told me that my report was very detailed and that she would look into it – this means the police have started investigating my allegations against Mr Ong Ye Kung,” the person stated.
It was noted that the person was called for an interview at the police station yesterday, however there is no police statement issued about the matter thus far.
Earlier, it was reported that Mr Ong, who is PAP’s candidate in Sembawang Group GRC took down a video of him talking to a boy in school uniform from his Facebook page after being informed by authorities that it is not in line with electoral rules.
He then took to his Facebook on 2 July, stating that the video has been taken down and apologised on the matter.
“We have been informed by authorities that this is not in line with electoral rules. We have therefore taken down the video,” he wrote. “We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.”
In his post, he described that he had a “nice conversation” with the boy who lives in Sembawang and they spoke about “how it is a good place to grow up”.
“Jony is a great sport, we had a good chat, and we put up a short vid,” Mr Ong asserted.
Under the Parliamentary Elections Act, primary and secondary school students are prohibited to take part in any election activities. This means they are not allowed to appear in a video or take part in activities to promote a political party for the election.