PAS orders civilian arrest of vote buyers and lie peddlars

By FMT Staff

GUA MUSANG: With three days to go before the Galas by-election, PAS is tightening its campaign machinery to thwart what it believes is Umno’s last-minute strategy — a cash-for-vote campaign.

Wan Abdul Rahim Wan Abdullah, PAS’s operations advisor for the by-election, said the party expected the bribing to begin today.

He issued a directive to his security officers yesterday that gave “signs to look out for”.

"We have directed all security teams at voting centres to take stern action against efforts to spread deceit and money,” he told newsmen.

"Whoever is caught spreading lies or attempting to bribe voters in these areas will have to face PAS security teams, who have been trained and tasked to carry out civilian arrests."

PAS would refer arrested individuals to higher authorities, he added.

Wan Abdul Rahim, who is the MP for Kota Baru, said PAS decided on the strategy after receiving "early information from reliable sources” about the vote-buying strategy, especially in the Sungai Terah area.

The bribe would be in the form of cash gifts of RM1,000 and television sets, he said.

Sungai Terah is the epicentre of the war between BN and PAS. In the last general election, it gave 500 votes towards the PAS’s victory in Galas. Che Hashim Sulaima beat BN candidate Mohamad Saufi Deraman by 646 votes.

Che Hashim died on Sept 27. This Thursday, PAS’s Dr Zulkefli Mohamad will face Umno’s Abdul Aziz Yusoff.

Eyeing the Malay voters

As campaigning moves into the sixth day, both sides are focussing on the Malay votes, which are said to be split down the middle between the two contenders.

"Both sides will be focussing on the Sungai Terah balloting area,” Wan Abdul Rahim said. “In the 2008 general election, PAS received 69 percent of the votes there.

"BN believes that if they can liquidate PAS support in this area, then victory is theirs. It will be a tight fight in Sungai Terah."

He said PAS was confident of retaining Orang Asli support and increasing Chinese support.

The Galas state constituency has 1,889 Orang Asli voters in five settlements — Pos Balar, Pos Hendrop, Pos Bihai, Pos Hau and Pos Brooke.

Since the 2004 general election, the Orang Asli, especially the young, have been showing open support for PAS.

After 2008, observers note a similar trend among the Chinese, who were BN faithfuls before. Galas has the most number of Chinese after Kota Lama, another state seat.

The focus of MCA and Gerakan in the next few days will be to reel in at least 50% of the 2,317 Chinese votes.