UMNO leader and deputy minister Ahmad Maslan said court precedents allowed government officials to pledge funding for seats during election time, Bernama reports.

He challenged polls watchdog Bersih to take its complaints to court to overturn the ruling that allowed such announcements.

“I challenge Bersih to review the court decision, bring it back to court and challenge it. Then there will be no further announcements.

“I have been following by-elections for a long time and have attended almost all of them since 1990, except one in Batang Ai, Sarawak. There have been many cases like this since 1990,” he said.

“I know the history, especially the precedent set during Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s time regarding road project announcements during by-elections… because the court has ruled previously that the government has the right to announce anything at any time to anyone it deems appropriate, regardless of whether it is during a by-election or not,” he said at a ceramah in Sungai Bakap last night.”

He did not say which court case he was referring to.

Bersih had questioned Ahmad, who is the deputy works minister, about the propriety of ministers or ministries organising programmes or announcing allocations in a seat that is up for election.

Ahmad said the issue had previously been brought to court, which had decided that such programmes and announcements did not violate the law,

The Sungai Bakap by-election on July 6 will see a one-on-one contest between Pakatan Harapan candidate Joohari and Perikatan Nasional candidate Abidin Ismail.

The seat fell vacant following the sudden death of its incumbent Nor Zamri Latiff on May 24 due to stomach inflammation. – June 27, 2024.