We Re Not Campaigning Say Cheering Flag Waving Ph And Bn Supporters At Pos Pondok

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Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional supporters line the road to a polling booth in Semenyih to grab the attention of voters.SEMENYIH: Amid the flutter of the red and blue flags lined up along most roadsides for the by-election here today are party supporters from both sides of the political divide who appear to be campaigning
Driving past the SMK Bandar Rinching polling centre, FMT noticed both Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) supporters were waving from their “pondok panas” (voter assistance booths)
One wouldn’t find this odd if they were there to stand in solidarity with their candidates but these campaigners were holding up banners with their candidate’s faces on them and urging people to vote for them
Some shouted: “Vote for us” and “Vote for Barisan” with similar chants being churned out by PH supporters as reporters parked their cars
FMT approached one “pondok panas” run by PAS supporters, who are supporting the BN candidate here and another booth manned by PH supporters to find out if they consider this action to be against the Election Offences Act
The PAS supporters froze for a moment when asked if they were concerned about the presence of their “pos pondok” being considered as last-minute campaigning
PH supporter Visva posing with a poster of the coalition’s candidate for the by-election.One spokesperson in a red baju Melayu stood up to say: “This is not campaigning
“We didn’t say (vote for) which party. We only vote for a number, like one or two.”He also said Election Commission (EC) officers had walked past their tent earlier in the day and did not tell them off or ask them to move further away
According to the Election Offences Act 1954, there can be no campaigning within a 50m radius from a polling centre
The PAS supporters were aware of this law. One man in a “Bossku” shirt and a rainbow umbrella seemed to have a profound appreciation for the law on elections, saying he always recorded alleged infractions
“During the Sungai Kandis by-election, I missed recording an instance where a vehicle was going around with the PH logo and calling on voters to vote for them. I only took pictures then, not a video
“I know that this is an offence. So now for other offences, we will record and report them,” he told FMT
A PAS supporter in a ‘Bossku’ T-shirt.The PAS supporters also seemed to have forgotten or were ignoring the supposed rivalry between PAS and Umno. One supporter said these are just “online news perceptions”
“Which party has PAS not worked with in the past? When we became friends, we became good friends,” the man, who wished to remain anonymous, said
He also denied there were rifts in PAS – at all levels – over their alliance with Umno, saying once the decision was made to work together, everyone followed suit with no questions asked
Another “pos pondok” was dominated by mostly Indian PH supporters with red flags, red T-shirts and posters, with the PH candidate’s face plastered on everything
The supporters looked slightly reserved. When FMT asked a supporter, named Visva, if this was because they knew it was wrong to campaign for votes, he disagreed
“We can shout for votes. It’s not wrong,” he told FMT
He argued that it was his right to campaign, giving the example of PH chairman and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s campaign in Semenyih on Thursday night
He also said PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin passed by the tents in the morning and did not say anything about their presence
Visva reluctantly agreed that campaigning during the campaigning period and on polling day are two separate matters, and he should not be canvassing votes with his four other team members here
The by-election here was triggered by the death of incumbent assemblyman Bakthiar Mohd Nor, of PPBM, from a heart attack on Jan 11. He had won a four-cornered contest in the 14th general election with an 8,964-vote majority
Those contesting in the by-election are PPBM’s Aiman Zainali, 30, Umno’s Zakaria Hanafi, 58, PSM’s Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul, 25, and independent candidate Kuan Chee Heng, 56, better known as the “10 sen man”. - FMT

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