ISKANDAR PUTERI – Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) candidate for the parliamentary seat here, Jashen Tan, has lodged a police report alleging double-standards by police towards candidates.
Tan, of Gerakan, said police had barred PN campaigners from holding a walkabout at the Taman Universiti market. He also claimed police are preventing a similar activity tonight at a night market in the same area on grounds that Barisan Nasional (BN) had applied first to hold its own programme there.
Similarly, Tan said police also told PN not to do another walkabout planned for November 16 at the weekly farmers’ market in Taman Impian Emas, for the same reason.
“This is unfair for the election candidates, and we were surprised by the decision. This doesn’t happen in (other places in) Iskandar Puteri, only in Skudai,” Jashen told reporters in front of the North Johor Baru district police headquarters here today.
He said police claimed the decision was to prevent untoward incidents if two rival parties were to meet while campaigning.
However, Tan said checks found that BN had no campaign activities today at the Taman Universiti market.
“Why were we told not to campaign in that area, then?” he asked.
He said he lodged a police report as all election candidates deserved fair and equal treatment.
Tan also said police had nothing to fear as rival parties were mature enough to be civil with each other if they happened to meet while on the campaign trail.
Police should follow campaign guidelines set by the Election Commission, he added.
“How do we reach voters if we’re not being allowed to campaign?”
Tan will face BN’s Datuk Jason Teoh and Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Liew Chin Tong for the Iskandar Puteri seat, considered a DAP stronghold.
In the 2018 national polls, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang won the seat for PH in a landslide victory against BN’s Teoh, by a whopping majority of 44,864 votes.
The seat has 222,437 voters for the coming general election. Polling will be on November 19. – The Vibes, November 11, 2022
