TANAH RATA: Three of the four Cameron Highlands Parliamentary by-election candidates yesterday signed the Support A Clean and Fair General Election pledge prepared by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0).
They were Pakatan Harapan candidate M Manogaran and two independent candidates namely, Aminuddin Baki Institute former senior lecturer Salehuddin Ab Talib and farmer Wong Seng Yee.
BERSIH 2.0 chairman Thomas Fann said the pledge demonstrated the commitments of the candidates who wanted a transparent election.
“With this, we are hoping that the Cameron Highlands by-election will set a new standard, since the seat was vacated due to corruption. We also plan to conduct a moderated debate session with all the candidates soon and currently waiting for a few confirmations,” he told a media conference at Heritage Hotel here.
When asked about the absence of the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Ramli Mohd Nor at the ceremony for the signing of the pledge Fann said Ramli was aware of the matter but was absent as he was tied to a tight activity schedule.
“We have reached out to the BN candidate, but his schedule is such that he can’t make it. He did not object to the signing so we will continue to pursue him and get him to sign it. We give him a week from today to sign the pledge. We will let the media know whether he has signed or not,” he said.
The Election Commission fixed Jan 22 for early polling and Jan 26 as voting day for the four-cornered contest.
The by-election was being held after the Special Election Court declared the victory of Datuk C Sivarraajh from BN at the 14th General Election (GE14) as null and void when it was found that corruption had taken place to influence voters in the area.
The Cameron Highlands Parliamentary constituency has two State Assemblies, namely Tanah Rata and Jelai with 32,009 registered candidates including early voters (247), absentee voters (12) and 385 disabled voters.
The by-election is the fifth after GE14 with three by-elections prior to this involving Sungai Kandis, Seri Setia and Balakong in Selangor and the Negeri Sembilan’s Port Dickson Parliamentary by-election. – Bernama
