THE PEOPLE’S JUSTICE PARTY (KEADILAN) WILL INITIATE A CIVIL SUIT TO NULLIFY UMNO-BN HELD SEATS DURING THE 13TH GENERAL ELECTIONS FOLLOWING THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (WSJ) AND SARAWAK REPORT (SR) ALLEGATIONS OF MONEY LAUNDERING, EMBEZZLEMENT AND ELECTORAL BRIBERY IMPLICATING THE PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA AND THE PRESIDENT OF UMNO
WSJ and SR’s series of exposes have left Malaysia reeling from allegations of money laundering, embezzlement and everything related to white collar crime – shockingly implicating the Prime Minister of Malaysia and the President of UMNO himself.
The Election Commission, true to its expected form and nature, cannot be expected to take action.[1] The EC’s past conduct – ranging from the civil suit it faced following the indelible ink fiasco, the various inaction to pledges of political bribery implicating government Ministers,[2] to the appeal it made following SARAWAK KEADILAN’s success in achieving a High Court decision mandating the EC to redo Sarawak’s re-delienation process in accordance with Schedule 13 of the Federal Constitution – have severely eroded its credibility.
Last week, the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (BERSIH 2.0), Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) and Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) submitted four complaints on possible corrupt practices in political funding to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for their immediate action.
Among others, the complaints highlighted a purchase of a power plant belonging to Genting; excessively above market price and how this monies were re-channeled to Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) – through which Najib announced RM2 million donation to two schools. This donation is not part of YR1M’s scope but was crucial in ensuring BN’s win in the area.
On top of these complaints, it bears reminding that existing electoral laws limit each candidate to RM200,000 (parliament) and RM100,000 (state) of campaigning under Section 19 of the Elections Offences Act, 1954. As such, the maximum electoral spending for the 222 parliamentary seats and the 505 ADUNs will be RM44.4 million and RM50.5 million each. This amounts to RM 94.9 million, which is definitely below the amount RM2.6 billion, allegedly used to finance the elections.
The amount, originally stated as USD700 million, and allegedly found in the Prime Minister’s personal accounts is 26 times more than the allowable electoral limit – clearly contravening existing electoral laws. Furthermore, who is to say that the alleged transaction was the only source of electoral fundings for UMNO and Barisan Nasional in the last General Elections.
As such, KEADILAN will follow in the footsteps of BERSIH 2.0, C4 and TI-M, and lodge reports with the MACC this coming weekend.
KEADILAN will also be bringing a civil suit to challenge the validity of the elections due to existing bribery allegations and corrupt monies utilised in the 13th General Elections.
The suit will lend credence to the call for the nullification of UMNO and Barisan Nasional held seats in the last General Elections. We are also prepared to face elections in the seats that we have won, in the event that the 13th General Elections are declared null and void.
We hope to file this suit as soon as possible and remain committed in our pursuit of electoral reforms – especially considering as legislators we had voted for many changes in our electoral system as stipulated by the 2012 Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform.
NURUL IZZAH ANWAR
LEMBAH PANTAI MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
KEADILAN VICE PRESIDENT AND ELECTIONS DIRECTOR
[1] In the civil suit against members of the EC Court of Appeal dissenting judgement, Justice Prasad Abraham Sandosham found that the respondent ie The Election Commission Members were in breach of their constitutional duties in the conduct of elections. We are open to mount a claim against the Election Commission office bearers on this basis.
[2]http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/ismail-sabris-no-fund-remark-not-a-form-of-bribery-says-polls-chief
