Pakatan Harapan candidate for Kelebang state constituency Gue Teck in the news conference broadcast on Facebook, November 19, 2021. — Screengrab from Facebook/Gue Teck
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — Two Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidates contesting in tomorrow’s Melaka state election have claimed their phones were hacked after several residents complained of receiving threatening messages against their families.
The candidate for the Kelebang state constituency Gue Teck and Prasanth Kumar Brakasam who is running for Rim told a news conference in Melaka earlier today that they were alerted to the incident yesterday.
Apparently, several Melaka residents from the Chinese community said they received text messages from the duo’s phone numbers and were told not to vote the PH candidates tomorrow.
If they do, private photos of the recipients’ wives will be released publicly, according to a statement issued by PKR earlier today to condemn the action.
“I have also contacted several people who got the message, explaining that I have never sent such a message to anyone.
“My representative has also lodged a police report on the matter and requested that the police take appropriate action against irresponsible parties,” Gue said in the news conference that was also broadcasted on Facebook.
PKR vice-president Chang Lih Kang and the party’s central leadership council member William Leong were also in the press conference.
“We also strongly condemn this abusive method, which wants to defame me before Election Day on 20th November 2021,” Gue added.
Another affected person was Melaka PKR election director for Rim, Wan Mahadi Wan Hussein, who manages the campaign for Ayer Molek candidate Mohd Rafee Ibrahim.
Like Gue and Prasanth, Wan Mahadi’s phone number was listed to have purportedly sent the threatening message.
All three and the text message recipients have filed police reports on this incident, which comes ahead of polling day tomorrow.
The Melaka PH issued a statement condemning the messages as dirty tactics and despicable acts by their political rivals, though no names were mentioned.