The commission's greenlight has drawn condemnation from the opposition, which says that EC condones all of BN's actions.
PETALING
JAYA: Pakatan Rakyat leaders have criticised the Election Commission
over its stance that rewarding Orang Asli with rice in return for a mock
vote is legitimate and instead called the move “unethical” and
“insulting”.The opposition pact stressed that it would never follow in Barisan Nasional’s footsteps by showering gifts on people with strings attached while campaigning despite the EC’s apparent green light yesterday.
“Giving donations is fine but you must draw a line. PKR does it to help the poor but we don’t tell them that in order to receive the gifts, they must vote for us,” said PKR communications director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.
“We tell them it’s a gift and then inform them that BN is stealing their lands, taking away their rights and that is why they should vote for change,” he told FMT.
Nik Nazmi said that “forcing” the Orang Asli to vote for PKR even if it was just for a mock election went against everything the party stood for.
“The EC has it wrong here. They have to make it clear that even when campaigning, there is a difference between telling the Orang Asli what Pakatan stands for and threatening them to vote or bribing them with gifts,” he added.
Yesterday, PKR Perak state chief Dr Yap Yit Thong told FMT that
officers from the Department of Orang Asli Development (Jakoa) and
Chenderiang state assemblyman Dr Mah Hang Soon had visited several Orang
Asli villages along Jalan Pahang, Tapah in a series of programmes.Yap claimed that throughout the visits, the Orang Asli were forced to vote for BN candidates on mock ballot papers and then made to return the marked papers to the officials. They were then rewarded with 5kg of rice.
Yap speculated that once the 13th general election began, BN would return to the villages and remind the Orang Asli that they had already voted for the party and accepted the rice.
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