KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 — A DAP leader today accused the Election Commission (EC) of insincerity for asking Orang Asli voters to bring their complaints to the judiciary when the polls regulator had used the same courts to dismiss the election petition in the Cameron Highlands constituency.

M. Manogaran, the DAP candidate for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat race, said the statement by EC chief Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof was a contradiction in terms as the body had filed to dismiss the petition, after indigenous voters in the area claimed to have been bribed, only on technical grounds.

“His statement today is a contradiction. While urging the Orang Asli to take the case to the Federal Court, the EC on the other hand objected to the petition and tried to prevent the petition from being heard on its merits.

“It is because there was enough evidence of bribery that I filed the petition in the first place. Unfortunately the election judge was more eager to dismiss the petition on technical points,” Manogaran said in a statement.

Abdul Aziz on Sunday said the Cameron Highlands election petition should be appealed at the Federal Court if voters are unhappy after bribery claims recently re-emerged in a “People’s Tribunal” held by polls reform group Bersih.

At the tribunal, Orang Asli voters claimed they had evidence of Datuk Seri G. Palanivel — Cameron Highlands MP and MIC president — promising them RM80 if they voted for Barisan Nasional (BN) in Election 2013.

Last August, the Election Court struck off an election petition filed by Manogaran against the Election 2013 result in the Cameron Highlands federal constituency, which Palanivel had won with a razor-thin majority of 462 votes.

The Cameron Highlands petition was among the many election petition easily dismissed by the courts on technical grounds. This triggered public furore and reinforced allegations of a partial judiciary, said Manogaran.

“If the judge is really interested in the case, then the obvious thing to do is to go for full trial by calling witnesses. My Orang Asli witnesses were ready to testify but unfortunately the case was never allowed to go for trial. The nature of the petition itself calls for hearing of witnesses,” he said.

The court’s treatment of the petitions filed by the opposition have led them to resort to the Bersih tribunal in an apparent attempt to court public opinion.

Abdul Aziz, however, said that in the case of the Orang Asli voters, they could lodge a police report, instead of merely testifying at the Bersih tribunal that has no legal authority.

Manogaran said he had refused to file an appeal with the Federal Court as it had allegedly failed to uphold justice in cases implicating the government.

“I did not file an appeal to the Federal Court because as I said at the People’s Tribunal organised recently by Bersih 2.0. I have no faith in the Federal Court when it comes to Election petitions, political cases and constitutional rights. The apex court has failed in its duty to protect the fundamental rights of the rakyat”.

Some media reports quoted an Orang Asli voter, Norman Kong, last Friday as testifying at the Bersih tribunal that Palanivel had given him and other villagers in Kuala Lipis, which falls in the Cameron Highlands constituency, RM20 each and were promised another RM80 if they voted for BN.

“But, this promise was also not fulfilled,” Norman was quoted as saying.

Norman also reportedly said that his village head had informed him and other villagers, after a meeting with the Orang Asli Development Department, that they would be arrested by the police if they did not support the ruling coalition at the ballot box.

English daily The Star reported Yok En, an Orang Asli village head in Cameron Highlands, as saying that all village heads were given RM200 for transport and food.

Abdul Aziz, however, stressed that although he disagreed with the practice of giving money during elections, providing cash for food and transport was not considered corruption unless voters were “forced” to vote for a particular candidate.