SUBANG JAYA, Sept 22 — PKR members were allegedly blocked from entering an Orang Asli village in Perak to campaign for Election 2013, the Bersih tribunal heard today.
PKR’s Amani Williams-Hunt Abdullah today testified that members of RELA, a volunteer corps under the Home Ministry, had barred six party members from entering the village based on orders from the “higher-up”.
Amani, who was PKR’s candidate for the Chenderiang state seat, said four RELA members were stationed at the village, with road cones also placed on the road.
“They said opposition party members are not allowed to come into the village to campaign there. We were told to go away,” Amani told a five-man panel at the People’s Tribunal.
Amani, who is also a lawyer, said he tried to point out that such a move was against the law, but was repeatedly told by the RELA personnel that they were acting on instruction from an unnamed “higher-up”.
The incident happened at around noontime on the last day of campaigning before the May 5 election, Amani said.
He also said a typical Orang Asli village has around 300 to 400 residents.
He said a police report was lodged but no action had been taken since then.
The People’s Tribunal on the 13th general election, which is organised by polls watchdog Bersih, has been hearing evidence since September 18 on alleged vote-rigging in the contentious polls, with the five-day hearing to end today.
The citizen’s initiative does not have the legal authority to enforce its recommendations, but has the “moral authority” to be accepted by Putrajaya, according to Bersih.
The five-member People’s Tribunal is led by Yash Pal Ghai, a former United Nations Special Representative and constitutional law expert.
The other members are former Indonesian Electoral Commission deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti, prominent lawyer Datuk Azzat Kamaludin, University of Malaya associate senior fellow Mavis Puthucheary and Rev Dr Hermen Shastri, the general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia.
More to come
