THE Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) today said Miri MP Dr Michael Teo committed an offence under the Election Offences Act 1954 when he distributed RM75,000 worth of food coupons to 300 underprivileged pupils from five schools in Rantau, which is facing a by-election soon.

Bersih 2.0 said the PKR MP from Sarawak had breached Section 8 of the Act, which states that it is an election offence to treat anyone to food, drink, refreshment, provision, money, ticket or any other means for the purpose of corruptly influencing any person to vote at an election.

Teo had, in a news report yesterday, said he distributed the coupons at the request of the prospective Pakatan Harapan candidate for the by-election, Dr S. Streram.

Streram was also reportedly present during the distribution.

“Section 8, along with other sections of the Act on promotion of ill-will and hostility, undue influence and bribery, begins with the phrase ‘before, during and after an election’,” Bersih said in a statement today.

Bersih 2.0 said the term “before an election” meant before nomination day, and “thus, it would be reasonable that the starting period for election offences to be committed (would) be from the moment a seat is declared vacant or when Parliament or the state assembly is dissolved”.

The civil society organisation said because the Rantau state seat was declared vacant on February 26, “it would be reasonable to assume that all unscheduled political activities carried out in the constituency are done for the purpose of fishing for votes, especially so with Dr Steram in attendance, who was announced as Pakatan Harapan’s candidate for the Rantau state seat”.

“Bersih 2.0 is of the opinion that all form of treating, undue influence, bribery and promotion of ill-will and hostility from the point a seat is vacated, constitute an election offence.”

While it said it would leave the matter to the relevant authorities to deal with, it still urged the Election Commission “to take all necessary steps for redress and ensure that all parties adhere to the Act”.

Ahead of the campaign period officially starting tomorrow, Bersih called on all parties and candidates to “adhere not just to the letter of the law but also to the spirit of the Act, which is, elections must be free, clean and fair”.

“It is our hope that with the Rantau by-election, we will see a reversal of the upward trend in offences committed in the past six by-elections since GE14.” – March 29, 2019.