KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak must disprove the Wall Street Journal’s claim that 1 Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) indirectly funded Barisan Nasional in Election 2013 and sue the publication over the article, Bersih 2.0 said today.

The electoral watchdog said the information to confirm or deny the claim was available to Najib, whom the group said must take action against the allegation.

“We therefore again call on the Prime Minister to refute these allegations, and take legal action in his capacity as the Chair of 1MDB’s Board of Advisors in which he holds all the knowledge behind 1MDB transactions, if he so believes the WSJ report is untrue.

“Otherwise, he must resign,” the committee said in a statement.

The group also said that the Election Commission (EC), the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and relevant agencies are “duty-bound to act independently” and initiate public investigation into the allegations made by the business daily.

Yesterday, news portal The Malaysian Insider reported that EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said Bersih 2.0 should collate evidence and lodge reports with the relevant authorities if it felt the WSJ report had merit.

He also questioned why Bersih is still raising the same issue, three years after the elections and after the group was given opportunities to make their case in court.

Today, Bersih said Abdul Aziz should be concerned with the allegations made by the WSJ report, and he should initiate an investigation into it.

“He should not, as he is apparently doing now, speak in a partisan manner, blinding himself from what is obvious.

“It is no wonder that the majority of Malaysians have no confidence in the EC as put forth in a survey by Merdeka Center,” it said.

Bersih added that it is every citizen’s right to question any electoral irregularities, and pointed out that the election petitions were dismissed on account of technicalities and not on merits or facts submitted to the courts.

Separately, former Umno deputy minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah took to Facebook to echo Bersih’s sentiments, saying it is Abdul Aziz’s responsibility to initiate the claims made by the article.

“When he found out that the Wall Street Journal article claiming that 1MDB funds were used to fund BN in PRU13, the EC chairman should investigate the article, and not for him to ask Bersih to collate evidence and lodge a police report,” Saifuddin wrote.

“And he should not say ‘why bring this up now’ - when there are court cases that are being reopened with changes to the court decisions because of new evidence.”

On Friday, WSJ published an article alleging that 1MDB indirectly funded Najib’s campaign during the elections.

It claimed that the sovereign wealth fund paid inflated prices for energy assets from a conglomerate that later contributed to a charity linked to BN and which featured during the campaign for the 13th general election.