REIMBURSING volunteers for food and transport cost is not illegal, said the Pakatan Harapan candidate for the Cameron Highlands by-election.

M. Manogaran said reimbursements are not given in exchange for votes and are part of campaign spending that will be accounted for.

“Giving money to volunteers for their food and transportation is not legally wrong.

“This is just part of the election expenditure that will be noted in the accounts and sent to the Election Commission,” he said Sg Koyan 3 this morning while campaigning.

“The court says that giving money in exchange for votes is wrong,” said the lawyer, who is making his third bid for the federal seat in Pahang after the election court nullified the GE14 results.

In November, the election court found that the MIC candidate C. Sivarraajh had bribed voters and nullified the results.

According to Manogaran, the 60 volunteers who helped out on nomination day on Saturday came on their motorcycles and were given RM20 petrol money.

“We are not even sure if they are voters, as we can’t ask them that. 

“This expense must be in the expenditure account that will be sent to EC and is within the EC limits for campaign expenses of RM200,000,” said the DAP candidate.

The money given to the volunteers was not wages.

“We don’t pay wages as they are not our workers but we do give money for food and transport.”

Photographs showing several people wearing shirts bearing the PH logo and allegedly distributing money to Cameron Highlands constituents went viral on social media yesterday.

The Election Offences Act 1954 stipulates that candidates or election agents must submit the statement of expenditure to the state EC director within 31 days of after the announcement of the election results.

The limit for a state seat is RM100,000 and RM200,000 for parliamentary seats.

Manogaran made his first bid for the Cameron Highlands seat in 2013 but lost to BN and again in 2018 to Sivarraajh. – January 14, 2019.