MALAYSIA — Several candidates contesting in Malaysia General Election 15 (GE15) have called for Election Commission to repeal a rule that requires permits for election walkabouts during the 14 days campaign period, criticising that the rule only serves to burden all contesting parties.
Liew Chin Tong, Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman for Johor, released a statement and called the EC to repeal the rule to ease candidates’ efforts in meeting more voters on the ground.
“This rule not only makes it difficult for candidates to meet voters and affect the smoothness of the campaign, but it also burdens the EC as well as police officials and staff with more bureaucracy.”
Liew who is also DAP’s Deputy Secretary-General, added that the rule which has been suddenly implemented and is “baseless” as there had not been such a requirement in previous years. Instead of burdening all parties, he stressed that EC and Malaysia police need to be more committed to improving campaign rules in GE15.
Liew is representing DAP to defend Iskandar Puteri seat in Johor. DAP as a component party of Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope), faces a three-cornered fight in this parliamentary seat, contesting with Jashen Tan Nam Cha from BERSATU, Perikatan National(PN) coalition, and Jason Teoh Sew Hock from MCA, Barisan National (BN).
According to Malaysia Chinese media Oriental Daily, Dr Lee Boon Chye, spokesperson for Parti Keadilan Rakyat(PKR)’s Perak campaign office, confirmed that PH candidates were told by EC to apply for permits for their election campaign, which includes walkabouts and the distribution of leaflets.
He lambasted that this rule by EC is unreasonable, as this would only burden candidates with work if they need to apply for a permit for each single campaigning activity.
Dr Lee stressed that under the spirit of democracy, candidates should be able to convey messages to voters through healthy and good campaigning activities so that voters can make correct decisions in the general election.
Perak Police insisted candidates to apply permits for walkabouts
Perak police issued a statement earlier and insisted candidates or agents must obtain a permit from the Perak district police chiefs before their walkabout.
Yusri Hassan Basri, Perak police chief said the rule will apply to public speeches too, added that such permits were necessary to ensure “safety and public order” and those who fail to comply would be subject to provisions under the Election Offences Act 1954.
“Police have been given powers to issue permits under the act,” Yusri assured that the police will handle all permit applications urgently.
He also explained that the definition of a walkabout includes one person, or a group, moving from one place to another to meet others to campaign for votes.
The candidate or campaigning agent will be committing an offence if they are found to be campaigning openly without a permit or fails to comply with the conditions of the permit.
Pahang PH Candidate: Making it difficult for candidates to meet voters
Meanwhile in Pahang State, another PH’s State Legislative Assembly (DUN) candidate, Noraini Abdul Ghani, also echoed the same criticism.
Noraini contesting in N37 Guai DUN seat, Pahang. She said she has to meet with about 24,000 voters in Guai seat and feels that the rule only adds burden and inconvenience to candidates.
“I feel this is a restriction and an ‘effort’ to make it difficult for us to meet our voters while we only left one week of campaign period.”
“Before this, there was no need for a permit for a ‘walkabout’ to visit the town, day or night market. You can just meet the voters,” Noraini added.
