NAJIB Razak has distorted the election court’s judgment on voiding Barisan Nasional’s win in Cameron Highlands at GE14, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said.

While the court’s judgment was clear, only the former prime minister “and his cronies” failed to understand the distinction between money given as inducement for votes and money given as part of campaign expenses, Lim said.

Najib, on his social media, as well as other social media accounts linked to BN, has been posting about the RM20 “petrol money”, calling it bribery, handed out by a Pakatan Harapan campaign worker to Orang Asli in Cameron Highlands who volunteered on nomination day last Saturday.

The Cameron Highlands federal seat’s by-election is on January 26 after the GE14 results were nullified on grounds of corruption.

Citing the court’s judgment, Lim said judge Azizah Nawawi found a “pattern of giving money to the voters, during the crucial period before the election, which to me can only mean to induce the elector to vote”.

Azizah also said the BN candidate, C. Sivarraajh, and Pahang Menteri Besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail had campaigned in the areas where the bribery occurred and there was evidence that voters received money together with voting slips with the BN logo.

“It is clear that these surrounding circumstances led me to the inevitable conclusion that the money was given to induce the voter to vote. 

“Therefore, it does not matter if the respondent (Sivarraajh) say that the money was given as ‘duit rokok’ or as travelling allowances for the batin to attend the meeting with the respondent and Datuk Wan Rosdy, as these are merely to disguise the real intention for the giving of money before the election,” Azizah said in her judgment, quoted by Lim in his press statement today.

Lim said this meant that bribery is defined as money used to induce voters to vote for a certain political party, while money used legitimately in an election campaign is not.

“Did the election court decide that ‘petrol money’ was bribery? Deliberately or otherwise, Najib had misquoted and distorted the judgment… (as the judge) did not make such ruling,” said Lim, who is also Iskandar Puteri MP.

In the facts of the case presented to the court, it was also found that Sivararrajh and Wan Rosdy visited Pos Lenjang on May 6 by helicopter and distributed RM25,000 to tok batin (Orang Asli village chiefs) to distribute to all voters in their respective villages, while each tok batin received RM200. – January 15, 2019.