KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 ― Pakatan Harapan (PH) may stand to lose its Sekinchan state seat in Selangor partly due to Barisan Nasional's Datuk Seri Jamal Yunos' alleged "money politics”, Ng Suee Lim said.

Ng, the three-term incumbent assemblyman from DAP defending his seat, said he has received positive response from voters in daily house-to-house visits when campaigning for the 14th general election, but it may pale in comparison to the handouts.

"Response has been very good, very positive. But I still worry because Jamal is using money politics openly... many things to convince voters to vote for Barisan,” he told Malay Mail when met during a walkabout yesterday.

Two police reports lodged by Ng on May 2 were made available to Malay Mail, where he had complained of two events of giveaways allegedly involving Jamal in one single day and also alleged breaches of the Election Offences Act.

In one of the police reports, Ng said that the first incident had taken place at around 10am on April 30 at the BN Pasir Panjang operations centre during the Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia's ceremony to hand over cost of living allowances in cash to fishermen.

Ng said the event was attended by around 800 Sekinchan fishermen and BN's three candidates for Sungai Besar, Sungai Panjang and Sekinchan, alleging that Jamal had announced that he would give an additional RM100 in cash to the fishermen present and that it was actually given out.

"Besides that, Jamal Yunos also promised to the fishermen voters who attended that he will give RM2,000 to them if Barisan Nasional candidate Lee Yee Yuan wins in the coming elections. The money was said to be from a friend in Sekinchan,” he told the police of the Sungai Besar Umno chief's alleged speech.

In the second police report, Ng also complained of BN's concert in Sekinchan on the night of April 30, which he said was attended by around 500 voters and the three BN candidates, and involved lucky draw prizes such as motorcycle, washing machine, television and refrigerator.

He claimed that Jamal had given a cash prize in the lucky draw, with the winner of the main prize of RM25,000 asked to support BN.

Ng told Malay Mail that 13 DAP members, including two fishermen, had also lodged police reports.

Lee has since denied knowledge of the RM25,000 cash prize at the concert, saying that he had left the event after introducing himself.

On Wednesday, Jamal reportedly said he would give out a Mercedes-Benz C200 as the grand prize at the third installation of his "concert”, despite the police reports.

Ng is seen here explaining the plight of Sekinchan resident Fang Meng Kong, who will not be able to vote in Sekinchan for GE14.

Fear of phantom voters

Ng said there were two other factors that were "equally dangerous” to his chances of retaining the Sekinchan seat, namely the presence of alleged "phantom voters” and the three-corner fight with PAS joining in the fray.

Ng said there was an alleged influx of thousands of outsiders unknown to Sekinchan locals, with the addresses in their identity cards changed to Sekinchan, adding that there are still around 1,200 of these voters which were not removed from the electoral roll for the seat.

"Our electoral roll ― since two years ago, Jamal brought in a lot of outsiders, phantom voters, transfer to Sekinchan, more than 7,000. But I already lodged the objection, so we successfully objected to 5,300, but still have another 1,200,” he said.

Sekinchan voter Fang Meng Kong, 72, said it was ‘odd’ that he had been transferred out to the far-off Bukit Bintang seat in Kuala Lumpur.

During Ng's walkabout on Thursday in the Site B village in Sekinchan, a Sekinchan voter named Fang Meng Kong was found to have been transferred out without his knowledge to the Bukit Bintang constituency in Kuala Lumpur.

Fang, 72, produced his identity card which had a Sekinchan address. Malay Mail's checks through the EC's website showed that he was assigned to vote in Bukit Bintang, which is about 90 minutes' drive away.

Fang confirmed to Malay Mail that all his family were registered to vote in Sekinchan and that he had just discovered that he was oddly the only one transferred out without his knowledge, adding that he will not be going to the police but will travel to Bukit Bintang on polling day.

The EC registers and places voters in polling areas according to the addresses registered on their identity cards.

Ng said Fang's case was the fifth such case that was brought to his attention during walkabouts since the GE14 campaign period started on April 28, noting that these long-time Sekinchan voters who were also supporters of PH were "surprised” to find that they were suddenly transferred out.

Ng suggested that these voters lodge a police report and said the EC must tell the public why this was happening, adding that he had advised Fang to go to Bukit Bintang to cast his ballot.

EC chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah has been reported by national newswire Bernama saying "phantom voters” do not exist and is merely a propaganda term.

He noted that some voters may only return to the constituencies once every four to five years and that local residents who could no longer recognise them may assume they are phantom voters.

Ng is seen here with his team doing a walkabout and house-to-house visits in Kampung Baru Site B, Sekinchan.

Of vote splitting and voter turnout

Ng was also worried about PAS’ entry to contest here despite it being a Chinese-majority seat, noting that PAS' strong base of its members and hardcore supporters in the seat amounts to around 1,500 votes, saying: "So this factor can also affect our results, because the last election I only won by 2,200.”

"That's why my team works very hard, extra hard, want to cover back all the losses in votes, try to gain more support until the final day,” he said.

"I believe if the turnout for voters, especially our young people come back [to vote], the percentage for voting can [go] up to 80 to 85 per cent, we can maintain the seat. We are confident.

"But if the situation is 65 per cent voter turnout, we will lose the seat,” he said of the importance of the Sekinchan voter turnout.

Amid Malaysia's record-high voter turnout of 84.84 per cent in the 13th general elections, the Sekinchan seat itself had recorded an overwhelmingly high 88 per cent turnout, website undi.info's data showed.

At that time, the Sekinchan seat also had a higher proportion of Chinese voters ― a key support base for Ng ― at 57 per cent of the 16,247 voters against Malay voters at 39 per cent.

For GE14, Ng is facing a three-corner fight with MCA's first-timer and local boy Lee Yee Yuan and PAS's Mohd Fadzin Taslimin for the Sekinchan state seat, which now has 18,101 registered voters, with a lower proportion of Chinese voters at 53.02 per cent and Malay voters at a slightly higher 43.79 per cent.

Ng is seen here greeting a Sekinchan voter during his walkabout in Kampung Baru Site B, Sekinchan.