PONTIAN, Nov 7 — The Election Commission (EC) today denied it was biased against certain candidates contesting in the Tanjung Piai by-election as alleged by some quarters.

Referring to incident at Pekan Nanas public market, its chairman Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun said the taking down of campaign materials by the election campaign monitoring team (PP-KPR) was in accordance with the regulations.

“There was one banner of Parti Gerakan (related to Deepavali wishes), eight banners of Pakatan Harapan and six anonymous banners which do not have printer information.

“The PP-KPR team has taken down the campaign materials and it was done in accordance with Section 11(1)© of the Election Offences Act 1954,” he said in a statement today.

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Azhar also said that all those campaign materials or prints were hung on the market fences, a public infrastructure, which is not allowed.

He added the representatives of the parties involved who were presence at that time also did not object to the taking down of their parties’ campaign materials. 

“Therefore, news report on Nov 5 which alleged that the EC was biased is not true. All monitoring and enforcement activities by the EC are based on provisions in the existing laws,” he added.

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He also said report summaries of the enforcement activities by the EC as well as the Royal Malaysian Police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission are shared daily via the commission’s social media platforms during the campaign period.   

“The EC is always committed to ensuring all monitoring and enforcement activities are done in a just, transparent and unbiased manner,” he said.

Two days ago, Gerakan president Datuk Dr Dominic Lau was reported as alleging the EC was biased against the party after it was not allowed to hang a banner at a location near the public market whereas other candidates’ posters in the same area were not taken down.

He urged the EC to take the same action against other candidates, including from Pakatan Harapan. — Bernama

Candidates for the Tanjung Piai by-election pose for a group picture at the nomination centre in Dewan Jubli Intan Sultan Ibrahim in Pontian today. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
Candidates for the Tanjung Piai by-election pose for a group picture at the nomination centre in Dewan Jubli Intan Sultan Ibrahim in Pontian today. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon