PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has defended the party’s distribution of cash to voters during the 15th general election (GE15), claiming that it was a charitable act and hence, not prohibited by electoral law.
The Malaysian Insight (TMI) quoted the Marang MP as saying existing rules only prohibited contesting candidates and their representatives from giving cash to voters.
“According to election law, a candidate or a candidate’s representative cannot give out cash money, it is up to the public to give alms,” Hadi told reporters after attending the Semarak Gelombang Rakyat event with Perikatan Nasional (PN) in Negeri Sembilan this morning.
The petitions filed by BN to challenge the election outcomes for three Terengganu parliamentary seats were described as a tactical move by the PN deputy chairperson.
Evidently PAS cannot deny the allegation that their party handed out cash to voters during the election, so their leader, Hadi Awang, has decided to brazen it out with a game of semantics and hair splitting.
Bribery is re-designated as ‘charity’ and we are informed that there is a big difference – or so Hadi claims – if the PAS state government machinery handed round the cash rather than the local candidates physically themselves.
If the PAS candidate was featured and promoted on the green envelope slip in which the money was presented, so what?
Good luck to the lawyer who takes on the task of standing up Hadi’s legal opinions in court. The PAS leader is no stranger to uttering preposterous self-justifications (for example that it is OK to lie if it benefits his own ‘Godly’ party) but he has tended to save his theories for credulous followers and to run away from testing them against the penal code.
It seems now he has no choice because the evidence is there and a case has been brought against him.