BERSATU deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir has again denied hiring Cambridge Analytica (CA), despite a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) that the former Kedah menteri besar used the data analytics and political consultancy firm for the 2013 general election campaign.

“The statement by the Prime Minister’s Office is untrue.

“I categorically deny the allegation that I have any contact with CA at any time,” he told The Malaysian Insight tonight after Barisan Nasional’s (BN) denial that it had use the firm’s services.

“Any allegation to the contrary is a twisting of facts aimed at diverting attention from the possibility that CA is still working with BN to use dirty tactics in the election campaign,” he added.

The PMO said neither CA nor its parent company SCL Group have ever “now or in the past – been contacted, employed or paid in anyway by BN, the Prime Minister’s Office or any part of the government of Malaysia”.

Instead, the PMO said that the SCL Group country representative had confirmed to the government that it was Mukhriz who had taken advice from the firm on the 2013 general election.

SCL’s Southeast Asia head is Azrin Zizal, who was Mukhriz’s media officer from 2009 to 2013 while the latter was deputy minister of international trade and industry.

The Malaysian Insight has contacted Azrin and is awaiting a response.

Mukhriz tonight confirmed that Azrin had worked for him for that period, but only as a media officer and never as a representative of a consultancy like SCL or Cambridge Analytica.

“He was no longer my officer when I became Kedah menteri besar,” said the son of Bersatu chairman and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Mukhriz had led the BN Kedah election machinery in 2013 and became the state’s menteri besar after the ruling party took back the state from the opposition. He was sacked from BN’s lynchpin party, Umno, in 2016 and joined Bersatu, which was founded the same year.

Mukhriz earlier today denied any knowledge of CA’s work for BN Kedah, saying he had never used their services and that it might have been the BN headquarters that employed the firm instead.

The CA website mentions Malaysia as a case study where it did work for the BN in Kedah using a targeted campaign that highlighted schools improvements since 2008. It led to BN winning back the state with 21 out of 36 state seats and 10 out of 15 federal seats.

CA worked with Donald Trump’s campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

It was banned from Facebook after failing to delete user data sent to it by a popular psychology test app maker.

The firm is under scrutiny in the UK where media exposes have revealed that it allegedly used unethical practices, including entrapment, in crafting political campaigns for clients. – March 20, 2018.