BARISAN Nasional (BN) tonight denied hiring Cambridge Analytica (CA) but said the data-mining and political consultancy firm had confirmed it provided advice to Mukhriz Mahathir in the 13th general election when he was with the ruling coalition.

Social media giant Facebook had banned the UK-based CA and parent company SCL group for misusing user data this week despite knowing the breach since 2015.

“Contrary to media reports, neither CA nor its parent company SCL Group have ever – now or in the past – been contracted, employed or paid in any way by BN, the Prime Minister’s Office or any part of the government of Malaysia.

“However, the SCL Group country representative today confirmed to the government that CA’s advice on the 2013 general election was provided personally to Mukhriz Mahathir, now Bersatu deputy president.

“The SCL representative also confirmed that he reported directly to Mukhriz, not BN or the government,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a media statement.

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 was with BN in 2013 and became Kedah’s menteri besar after the ruling party took back the state from the opposition.

The son of Pakatan Harapan chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad 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.

“I led the Kedah BN election machinery during GE13, our strategies and tactics were only to defeat the PAS-led government at that time but we were never contacted by the CA, not even once.

“Whatever that we did was based on our own initiatives and ideas, without CA’s help,” he said.

On its website, CA said it had helped BN in Kedah with a targeted messaging campaign that highlighted its school improvements since 2008 and helped the ruling coalition win Kedah back from Pakatan Rakyat in the 13th general election.

Mukhriz said it might have been the BN headquarters that had contact with the firm and reiterated that BN Kedah never knew about it.

Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, who had been deputy prime minister and BN elections director at the time, also said he was unaware of the firm doing any work for the coalition. – March 20, 2018.