Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has come under fire from election ‘watchdog’ Bersih 2.0 over his campaign speech in Sandakan, where he allegedly told voters that their parking woes would only be solved if the DAP candidate wins.
TTF: Actually, this isn’t the first time Lim Guan Eng is said to have bribed voters.
In the run up to the Cameron Highlands by-election, he told voters that more development would be brought to the Pahang district if Pakatan Harapan won the 26th January poll.
“We hope the voters will make the right decision; choose our candidate that can work well with the Federal government in order to ensure the welfare of all races are taken care of.
“Since Barisan won here (Cameron Highlands) on May 9, there hasn’t been any change. It’s still the same as before.
“But if we win this time, we will be able to provide many value-added services to voters here,” he was quoted as saying.
Basically, what he did was precisely what the DAP used to criticise Barisan National for doing.
When it was pointed out to him that there was nothing stopping the federal government from bringing development to Cameron Highlands no matter who won the by-election, he simply said:
“I never promised to bring development projects to Cameron Highlands to woo voters.”
Nobita, Nobita…
KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has come under fire from election watchdog Bersih 2.0 over his campaign speech in Sandakan, where he allegedly told voters that their parking woes would only be solved if the DAP candidate wins.
Bersih said Lim’s speech was no different from Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s speeches in the past, where the former Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman had infamously said: “You help me, I help you” to voters during the Sibu and Hulu Selangor by-elections in 2010.
Najib had said this when urging people to vote for BN candidates if they wanted him to give allocations for a new bridge and a new school in the two constituencies.
He was widely condemned by the then opposition for bribing voters.
Fast forward to the ongoing campaign for the Sandakan by-election, Lim allegedly told voters that if DAP candidate Vivian Wong was elected, she could remind him to include a parking project in the next budget.
However, if she was not elected, then it couldn’t be helped,
“Lim is the finance minister, and it is within his power to grant that extra allocation if there is a genuine need, and indeed it is his duty to do so regardless of which party the candidate or MP is from,” Bersih said in a statement today.
“We would urge him to give his assurance that he will help resolve the car park issue even if Wong didn’t get elected because he is the finance minister for all Malaysians regardless of political affiliation.”
Bersih said it was “deeply concerned that arm-twisting electioneering tactics such as bribery and undue influence” would be used against voters.
“Voters must be free to make their choices without any pressure, which is why they are considered election offences.”
The election watchdog said Lim must come clean on the matter and to immediately apologise if he had uttered such a statement.
It was reported on Thursday that the Election Commission (EC) had taken down a billboard which implied that Lim had threatened Sandakan voters by saying he would not address the issue of insufficient parking bays at the Sandakan Hospital should the DAP candidate lose in the May 11 polls.
An EC officer, Asarakal Martinis, said the billboard was taken down because it was allegedly “seditious”.
“We referred the matter to the EC headquarters in Putrajaya, and following that we were ordered to take it down,” he said.
The Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) billboard depicted a screenshot from Astro AEC’s Mandarin news, with a Chinese headline which translates to “Insufficient parking lots in Sandakan hospital; Lim: If we win, then find me. If we lose, there’s nothing I can do”.
Bersih also questioned why the billboard had been taken down by the EC’s enforcement team as it was not their function to do so.
“The function of the enforcement team is to bring down any campaign material which contravenes any written laws relating to elections.
“While the billboard may be offensive to some, we cannot see any election offence committed that would require the EC enforcement team’s immediate action,” the statement read.
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