KLUANG – The Unity Machinery claims that provocative banners were put up by irresponsible parties at several polling district centres early this morning.
Mahkota state assembly by-election BN deputy director, Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said that the provocative banners written in Malay and Mandarin were spotted at 3am on Saturday and installed at 18 at polling district centres.
"The banners display images of the BN candidate Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah along with Umno President Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and (Johor) Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, with a congratulatory message about winning Mahkota and becoming the Kluang Umno division chief.
"It aims to create conflict among the Kluang Umno leadership. As everyone knows, the current Kluang Umno division chief is Datuk Jais Sarday. Umno will not hold any party elections until after the 16th General Election," he said during a press conference here on Saturday.
Also present were Kluang Member of Parliament Wong Shu Qi and Johor DAP deputy chairman Sheikh Umar Bagharib Ali.
Ahmad said the banners had been taken down and they considered to file a police report.
"These banners are irresponsible, and we regret this incident. We hope that voters will not be influenced by such things. This shows that the irresponsible parties are out of ideas and bankrupt of issues, leading them to resort to this," he said.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Umar claimed to have received a phone call from Pahang urging him to vote and appealing for support for Perikatan Nasional (PN).
Umar, who is also a voter in the Mahkota state assembly, said that the call from the woman contained incitement, alleging that if BN were voted for, it would be controlled by the Chinese.
A total of 61,274 regular voters for the Mahkota state assembly by-election are expected to vote today until 6pm involving 109 channels across 20 voting centres.