The by-election allocation statement was made based on the court’s decision, said Ahmad Maslan

NIBONG TEBAL: UMNO Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan insisted that the statement made by him regarding allocations in the previous by-election (PRK) was based on the court’s decision.

According to Bernama, following that, he was puzzled as to why the Bersih and Adil Election Coalition (Bersih) disputed his statement when he clearly gave a statement based on what the court had decided.

“I challenge Bersih to do a study on the court’s decision, bring it back (to the court) for what reason and challenge it, then (later) there will be no more announcements.

“I have been following PRK for a long time and I attended almost all PRK since 1990 except one in Batang Ai, Sarawak… there have been many (cases like this) since 1990 and of course I know the story because of the precedent of the case during the time of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah regarding the announcement of the current road project PRK.

“…because of the precedent of this case, the court ruled that the government has the right to publicize anywhere and at any time and to whomever and about whatever it deems appropriate for the people, regardless of time, during the PRK or not,” he said when met after the program Unity Talk at Sungai Duri Night Market site here tonight.

Also present were Party Amanah Negara (Amanah) President Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate for Sungai Bakap State Legislative Assembly (DUN) PKR Dr Joohari Ariffin.

Bersih recently questioned Ahmad’s statement who is also the Deputy Minister of Public Works who thinks it is not wrong for ministers or ministries to organize programs or announce allocations during the by-election.

Ahmad said the issue of organizing the program and announcing the allocation had been taken to court before, but the decision was not in favor of the party who disputed it.

Earlier, in the talk, Mohamad, who is also the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, hoped that Malay voters would not be misled by the racist sentiments brought up by the opposition throughout the Sungai Bakap state assembly by-election campaign.

He said such sentiments, including saying ‘Malaysia will supposedly be taken over by the Chinese community’, were deliberately played by the opposition to attract voter support.

“Let’s not believe without seeing the real reality. For more than a year this government (Unity) has been running (ruling), the rights of the Malays have not been affected, in fact we are trying to improve them,” he said.

The Sungai Bakap state assembly by-election on July 6 saw a one-on-one clash between PH candidate Joohari and Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Abidin Ismail, which was held following the death of incumbent Nor Zamri Latiff on May 24.