KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — The Election Commission (EC) said it is not the proper authority to determine the announcement of projects close to a poll constitutes an offence.

EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun said any opinion it made on this would be inadmissible in court.

"It must be stressed that the EC is not a proper authority to determine whether such acts contravene election laws or otherwise.

"Whatever the EC says on this issue will merely be an opinion that is inadmissible as evidence should the matter be brought to the courts.”

However, Azhar said that such activities may open the outcome to challenge via an election petition.

Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman commented last week about a RM4 million allocation for the Tanjung Piai federal constituency that will be voting in a by-election on November 16.

The revelation drew allegations of vote-buying.