Stop PAS from dishing out ‘charity aid’ in state polls: Puad

JOHOR BARU – Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Puad Zarkashi has urged the Election Commission (EC) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to take action and stop PAS from dishing out “charity aid” to voters in the upcoming state elections.

The Johor state assembly speaker said that PAS should not continue giving cash handouts to the public as this has been deemed as an act of corruption by the anti-graft authority.

But without action from law enforcers, PAS, which is part of Perikatan Nasional, would continue doing so in the name of charity, the recently appointed Umno permanent deputy chairman added.

“PAS has a lot of money to donate. According to their leaders, they had been collecting money (from their supporters by using) “Milo tins” (during the party’s events) for a long time. This helped them rake in a lot of money, perhaps a billion ringgit, which in turn can be used for charity,” Puad said in a sarcastic Facebook post.

In response to Umno’s accusations of vote-buying during the recent general election, PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang last Saturday said that the party did not violate any electoral laws as it had simply been performing charitable acts when distributing the cash aid.

Umno had accused PAS of vote-buying in Terengganu in the form of i-Pension, i-Belia and i-Student initiatives in the state, which is ruled by PAS.

Terengganu Umno filed a petition under the Election Offences Act 1954 on January 3 to annul the 15th general election results of the Kuala Terengganu, Marang and Kemaman federal seats won by PAS candidates.

MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki however said investigation papers have been opened on the matter.

“It does not matter if they use terms like sedekah (charity). It is still corruption as defined under Section 10 of the Election Offences Act 1954.

“We have opened a few investigation papers after receiving complaints during and after the election, and we will investigate every case that was referred to us,” Azam was quoted as saying by New Straits Times.

Six states namely Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Penang, Selangor and Negri Sembilan will have to hold their election at the latest by August this year as they did not dissolve their respective state assemblies along with Parliament during last November’s general election.  – The Vibes, January 25, 2023