JOHOR BARU: Defeated Pulai Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed suggested a probe into claims of vote-buying for the seat in the 15th General Election (GE15).
He made the recommendation to the Election Commission (EC) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) after several voters from a People's Housing Project (PPR) flat in the area claimed they ticked the ballot in another candidate's favour as they were paid RM300 per vote.
"They came up to me and apologised a few days after the results were announced. I was shocked that a party that clamours about fighting corruption is doing this.
"That's why they managed to rake in 20,000 Malay voters to support them, even though their candidate was not recognised by the locals and their machinery was ineffective," he said in a Facebook post, without directly naming the candidate.
He, however, said he did not blame the voters for caving in to the advances of the such candidates' agents as they could have been burdened by rising cost of living.
"All this time, many people or opposing parties have accused Umno and BN of spending big and accused us of buying votes to win.
"But apparently, they are the ones who do the vile and disgusting work. But looking at the number of parliamentary and state seats won (by the coalition), it seems that the strategy was successful.
"What I'm talking about happened in Pulai only, I don't know if the same thing happened in other places. I do not know.
"Perhaps the EC and MACC can investigate the issue of vote-buying in Pulai and other places as well. This is not a small issue because it involves political integrity and corruption."
Nur Jazlan saw a three-cornered fight for the Pulai seat in GE15. Pakatan Harapan candidate Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub defended the seat with 33,174 votes defeating Nur Jazlan who had 31,726 votes and Perikatan Nasional's Loh Kah Yong, who obtained 20,677 votes.