Clean and fair elections?

EXPOSED: Post-election payouts in Penang

 Posted by Aliran on 12 May 2013 Add comments

 

Following tip-offs from the public, an Aliran special investigation team checked out a shoplot in Penang and came away astounded with what was happening in broad daylight.

Payout time! Janji ditepati

Yesterday, Aliran members received tip-offs from the public about a payout to voters:

… it is payout time for voters in the Parliamentary constituency of Balik Pulau and the three state seats under it. Voters there are given RM200 each by don’t know who.

You may file a report on this menace as the exercise to pay voters is ongoing. I saw it yesterday, where long queues formed outside a shophouse in Sungai Dua, Penang. Opposite TESCO extra, behind Magnum 4D. This outlet which (allegedly) collects illegal 4d bets and also (acts) as an illegal gambling centre is paying out, and the exercise is continuing today, I was told.

Another member of the public sent us a tip-off with this message:

Attached promissory note given by agents of BN Bayan Lepas. In the event of BN victory in Bayan Lepas, RM160 will be paid to the holder (see voucher above).

This receipt shows “S38″, which presumably relates to seat N38 Bayan Lepas. As it turned out, N38 was won by Noordin Ahmad of the BN, who increased his majority from 399 votes in 2008 to 458 this time.

An Aliran special investigation team decided to check this out. We found the shophouse at about 11.15am today with a long line of people waiting in the corridor. At the ground floor was a little outlet with a Celcom sign with a cloth banner hanging outside saying: “Give me 5”.

The primary focus appears to be the Balik Pulau parliamentary seat, which was won by Hilmi Yahaya. He polled 22318 votes, defeating the PKR candidate, Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik, by a 1539-vote majority.

This was a ‘winnable’ seat for the BN as in the 2008 general election, Yusmadi Yusoff of PKR had clinched the seat, squeezing through with a 708-vote majority. (Yusmadi was not selected this time around to defend the seat for PKR.)

We managed to get hold one of two receipts from people who were standing in line. Both were disappointed as they were not eligible to claim their money as the BN candidates failed to win in their respective areas.

No such luck, the BN guy didn’t win here.

A mother and her daughter showed us her voucher inscribed with S35. S35 presumably relates to N35 Batu Uban, won by PKR’s Dr T Jayabalan. The two women were crest-fallen: “We were unable to claim the money as the BN candidate didn’t win.”

Too bad, the BN man didn’t win.

Similarly the holder of S32 was unable to claim his “winnings”. S32 presumably relates to N32 Seri Delima, a seat won by Sanisvara Nethaji Rayer a/l Rajaji of the DAP. No win for the BN there.

Apparently, the payouts today were being made from 11.00am to 7.00pm, and this was the third day of payments. Look at this long line of people today:

And incredibly, the organizers were daring, conducting this payout just nine doors away from a police station in the next block. Unfortunately, the police were out on patrol.

Payouts were also made yesterday until evening. Those who came late were told to come again today as payments for the day had already been made.

Over in Pulau Betong, also under the Balik Pulau parliamentary seat, something similar was happening, according to new Bayan Baru MP Sim Sze Tzin of PKR. At a shack in a kampung next to a seafood eatery, some 200 people were queuing up in four lines of 50 people to collect amounts ranging from RM160 to RM200, similar to what was being paid out in the shoplot we checked.

The vouchers indicated these were for S38 (presumably N38 Bayan Lepas) and mostly for S39 (presumably N39 Pulau Betong), said Sim.

N38 Bayan Lepas was won by Noordin Ahmad with an increased majority of 458 votes (previously 399). Farid Saad won the N39 Pulau Betong seat with a majority of 395 votes, up from 294 in 2008.

Sim said that when he and and former Penang Speaker Abdul Halim Hussain turned up at Pulau Betong, the organisers of the payout, believed to be gangsters, fled from the scene. Abdul Halim lost in the N40 Teluk Bahang state seat by 801 votes. N40 is the third seat in P53 Balik Pulau, along with N38 Bayan Lepas and N39 Pulau Betong.

Bakhtiar, who lost in Balik Pulau, made a report at the Pulau Betong Police Station, and it was accepted, Sim added. But he was also told that the authority with the proper jurisdiction in this matter is the MACC.

So if this sort of thing can happen in broad daylight in a developed state like Penang, just imagine what is going on in the rural and interior areas where there is little public scrutiny. The mind boggles.

Clean and fair elections? You tell us.