PONTIAN, Nov 5 — Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Tanjung Piai by-election candidate Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng today denied any involvement in a troubled Barisan Nasional (BN) era project for vehicles travelling between Johor and Singapore.

He said a police report lodged against him alleging corruption in the previous BN government project was not new and clarified that the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had held three hearings since March this year.

“Many of the allegations currently being spread are also incorrect and these were already answered in the 2017 Auditor-General‘s Report,” Wee said in a statement.

Earlier this afternoon, a police report was lodged at the Pontian district police headquarters against the former Tanjung Piai MP from 2008 to 2018, for being involved in corruption involving the previous administration’s Transportation Ministry’s Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) and Road Charge (RC) project.

Advertisement

The reports urged authorities to investigate possible wrongdoing in the RM149.45 million project, which was to install and run a vehicle entry permit (VEP) system between Malaysia and Singapore.

Wee said this recent episode was similar to what took place in the Rantau by-election where police reports were made against the winning BN candidate Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, alleging corruption on a purchase of an apartment overseas.

“When the Rantau by-election was completed, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) subsequently cleared him and his opponents stopped raising this allegation as an issue,” he said.

Advertisement

Wee said he was confident that the PAC and the police will eventually clear his name.

“I urge my opponents in this by-election to fight fairly based on ideas, policies and our commitment to the rakyat.

“All parties should stop engaging in dirty tactics and focus our efforts on what counts most, which is serving the people,” said Wee.

The Tanjung Piai by-election will see a six-cornered contest between Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Karmaine Sardini, BN’s Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng, Gerakan’s Wendy Subramaniam, Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia’s (Berjasa) Datuk Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz and two independent candidates Ang Chuan Lock and Faridah Aryani Abdul Ghaffar.

The by-election was called following the death of incumbent PH’s Datuk Dr Md Farid Md Rafik from Parti Pribimi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) on September 21.

The Election Commission (EC) has set early voting on November 12, while polling is on November 16.