PETALING JAYA: As the campaigning period for the 15th General Election (GE15) enters its final week, vandals have gone overboard in damaging election materials of contesting candidates.
The latest incidents saw damaged election billboards of incumbent Tambun MP Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu of Perikatan Nasional and incumbent Putrajaya MP Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor of Barisan Nasional.
The billboard with Ahmad Faizal’s picture at the highway exit to Sunway City in Tambun had a gaping hole cut out from his face while Tengku Adnan’s giant poster was sprayed with black paint.
Ahmad Faizal, when contacted, said he has made a police report but hoped that there would be no copycats.
“There must be no tit for tat. I like to keep things cool. As you can see, even my style of campaigning is very jovial with no fierce attacks on my opponents.
“I see big billboards of my opponents everywhere but all these are in the spirit of democracy.
‘’We should be mature, no matter who we support.
“I hope everyone controls their tempers as we enter the last leg of campaigning,” said Ahmad Faizal, who also said that his posters were vandalised in GE14 in 2018.
Tambun is one of the most heated parliamentary seats this GE15 as Ahmad Faizal is up against big names such as Pakatan Harapan chairman and PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, as well as Tambun Umno division chief Datuk Aminuddin Hanafiah, who is standing for Barisan Nasional.
In a tweet yesterday, Tengku Adnan said dirty tactics such as vandalising candidates’ posters must be rejected.
“We say no to thuggery and immoral acts. The family of Putrajaya wants wellbeing and sustainability. We have manners and ethics. We nurture politeness and morality. This [vandalism] is not the behaviour of the Putrajaya community,” he said.
In Section 14, Petaling Jaya, a poster of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob on a Barisan Nasional billboard was also vandalised with parts of his face cut out.
It is not known if a police report was made.
In another incident in Tapah, Perak, a 61-year-old man was arrested by the police for vandalising the flags of Parti Warisan.
Perak police chief Comm Datuk Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri said the arrest was made following a police report on the matter.
“The report was accompanied by a picture of an individual throwing the flags of Warisan onto the roads in Tapah,” he said.
In Negri Sembilan, police said there have been a number of reports of vandalism of election materials.
Negri Sembilan police chief Deputy Comm Ahmad Dzaffir Mohd Yusoff said most involved acts of tearing and damaging candidate posters, banners and flags, as well as the removal of flags of contesting parties.
“Five such cases happened in Jempol, Kuala Pilah, Rembau and Seremban,” he said.
In Kuala Lumpur, a viral Tik Tok by Halimey Abu Bakar showed a man taking down the flags of Pakatan Harapan in front of the National Museum.
However, Halimey has come forward to explain that as an appointed Election Commission agent, he was in fact removing party flags which were obstructing a fence of the National Museum in the Lembah Pantai parliamentary constituency in line with the Election Offences Act 1954.
In Terengganu, Dungun OCPD Supt Baharudin Abdullah said a 31-year old lorry driver was arrested for vandalising election materials.
The arrest of the suspected drug addict was made after a viral Tik Tok showed a man burning the flags of Perikatan National.
