KUALA LUMPUR: The recent visit to Cameron Highlands has nothing to do with the upcoming by-election on Jan 26.
So said Transport Minister Anthony Loke, in response Bersih 2.0's criticism that it was "principally wrong" for ministers and MPs to hold events in Cameron Highlands so close to the polls' date.
The election watchdog steering committee member Alexzander Johnson had said that although the ministers and MPs did not breach the election laws, it was not right for government’s representatives to be seen as “campaigning” at the area.
Loke explained that his visit yesterday was related to his ministerial position and had been scheduled earlier.
He also took note of a possible criticism and barred the Pakatan Harapan candidate DAP's M. Manogaran from attending the events.
“What did we abuse? Did we give them any sweetener? Did we give any promise?
“It cannot be just because of the by-election we must stop all our activities and work.
“We cannot simply wait for another month after all the election process to only start solving the people's problems.” he told a press conference in Bangsar today.
On Jan 4, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that Manogaran will be contesting the by-election which was triggered by the disqualification of MIC's Datuk C. Sivarraajh following evidence of bribery.