KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 26): Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has claimed that the 15th general election was the most corrupt of all the elections held in independent Malaysia.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday (Jan 25), the former MP for Langkawi said that every single candidate who won, was because of bribes given to the voters.
He lamented that the bribes were given openly, adding that many received the bribes just before going in to vote.
He said there were lots of people who saw the money being handed over.
“There was little or no attempt to hide as the money was being given and the instruction regarding which symbol to cross in the voting slip,” he said
Dr Mahathir said there were other evidence of corruption during election which took place unhindered.
“It is obvious that huge amounts of money were expanded in promoting the candidate and the parties,” he said.
Flags
Commenting on party flags, the veteran politician said they are not cheap.
“Flags cost at least RM3 each. The bamboo sticks and the work sticking them in the ground or hanging them would cost another RM3.
“A million would cost RM6 million. 10 million would cost RM60 million. There are 222 constitutes.
“There were thousands of workers and party 'volunteers' who were paid,” he said.
He added that perhaps each party would spend RM100 million.
“Many said it was more. A single candidate is known to spend as much RM25 million,” said Dr Mahathir.
“Even if each party spent RM100 million, the question that needs to be asked is where did so much money come from.
“Some maybe from donations. But for Government parties the money must be from the Government,” he said.
Dr Mahathir went on to say that in GE15 the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should investigate the parties which seems to have huge funds spent on bribing the voters and the massive expenditure on campaign.
“The source of funds must be explained. Failure to do so would warrant extensive investigations.
“If it is discovered that the money had come from illegal sources, the candidate or the party should be charged,” he said.
Limits
The former prime minister said that at the moment there is no limit to the amount a party could spend in an election.
He said there is a need to limit the amount.
“What is happening now is that the bribes and the money spent on campaigning is limitless,” he said.
In a veiled jibe at Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Dr Mahathir said “it has been proven that a prime minister had stolen huge amount of money so as to give big bribes and conduct massive costly campaigns".
“Such are the amounts spent that parties which had no stolen money or are against bribery stand no chance of winning at all,” he said.