DAP was again left livid after one of its campaign billboards in the Batu Kawah constituency in a suburb of Kuching was ordered torn down as the message on it was reportedly deemed to have flouted an election regulation.

The DAP Batu Kawah candidate, Kelvin Yii, said the message on the billboard “simply portrays how voters’ decision to vote Pakatan Harapan in GE14 have brought a new change for Sarawak and Malaysia”.

“Essentially, our message was: people’s votes mattered.”

The EC however, did not see it that way, and told Yii the message was “promoting feelings of ill-will or hostility”, an offence under section 4A of Election Offences Act.

The Bandar Kuching MP, in a stiff fight to unseat the incumbent Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president Sim Kui Hian, said even after trying to convince the 10-man EC enforcement team what the message was, the billboard erected at a residential area named Highfields was removed at around 2pm.

“I then stood next to the remnants feeling frustrated yet inspired,” Yii then said in a statement.

He said while the powers that be might have succeeded in “erasing our message” from the billboard, such heavy-handed tactics “will never wipe them out from the rakyat’s mind”.

This was not the first time the party had been asked by the EC to remove an offensive billboard or posters.

A few days back, the party had been ordered by the EC to remove a dozen or so posters on display in Kuching.

The poster poked fun at the initials of the ruling coalition GPS by turning it to “Gabungan PAS Sarawak”.

DAP’s rival for Chinese votes, SUPP, reportedly lodged a complaint on the posters. – December 13, 2021.