PAKATAN Harapan’s M. Manogaran admitted he made a mistake wearing a shirt with the coalition’s logo into a polling centre this morning, saying he was in a rush and had worn it out of habit.

“It was a minor mistake as I wore the same kind of shirt everyday and just forgot that it had party logos on it,” he told reporters at SK Betau in Jelai this afternoon.

Manogaran was slammed on social media as photos of him being escorted by an Election Commissions officer out of a polling centre at SK Sinderut in Jelai went viral.

Twitter users have said the former Teluk Intan MP, who is making his third attempt at the Cameron Highlands federal seat, should have known better, being a “veteran” at contesting elections.

Wearing or displaying party logos inside a polling centre is an election offence.

When pointed out to him that he had experience as a candidate, Manogaran said he hadn’t had much sleep in the last two weeks of campaigning and was “forgetting little things”.

He stressed that he immediately left the polling centre when the EC officer told him to.

Manogaran also denied accusations that PH, now that it was the federal government, was doing as it pleased without regard of the law.

“No. We follow the law. This is my mistake. I am sorry,” he said.

Manogaran and elections watchdog Bersih 2.0 have been criticised by Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri over the incident.

“PH does not follow the law. They do what they like, even though police reports have been made against them. They just couldn’t care less.

“It was so clear today the rules had been broken, but Bersih has not made a statement,” he said.

Manogaran added, however, that he saw a woman wearing a shirt with an Umno logo inside a polling centre but no one made a fuss about that.

His gaffe also made EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun a target on Twitter.

Some users accused Azhar of bias, calling him a staunch PH supporter and of giving leeway to such mistakes because they were done by members of the ruling coalition. – January 26, 2019.