PH lodges police report against Lokman Nor Adam

(FMT) – Pakatan Harapan (PH) has lodged a police report against Umno Supreme Council member Lokman Nor Adam for claiming that PH is buying identity cards of Orang Asli to prevent them from voting in the Cameron Highlands by-election.

Jelai PH operations centre deputy chief Arvind Bharet described the allegation as defamatory and one aimed at tarnishing the ruling coalition’s image in the polls.

“I would like to stress that PH does not condone such acts as we firmly believe that voting is a right that every citizen of a democratic country has, and that right should not be violated in any way,” he said in a statement here today.

The police report was lodged yesterday at the Sungai Koyan police station by Arvind himself.

Lokman was reported as saying that Barisan Nasional’s “sources” had uncovered that certain “individuals” had attempted to buy identity cards from about 2,000 Orang Asli voters in the constituency.

He said this was the latest tactic by the coalition to win the by-election.

Met by reporters during his campaign rounds today, PH candidate M Manogaran said he was not aware of the police report.

“This one I’m not aware, I need to check on this,” he said.

Manogaran is facing former senior police officer Ramli Mohd Nor, 61, of the BN and two independent candidates, Sallehudin Ab Talib, 61, a former senior lecturer at the Aminudin Baki Institute, and Wong Seng Yee, 40, a farmer.

The by-election is being held after the Election Court on Nov 30 last year nullified the victory of BN candidate C Sivarraajh in the 14th general election because of vote buying.

Polling is on Saturday.