Three held for distributing campaign leaflets at Lumut naval base

IPOH: Three local men were arrested for allegedly distributing campaign leaflets for the 15th General Election (GE15) at the Lumut Naval Base, near here yesterday.

Perak police chief, Datuk Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri, said that police received a report from the Navy's Provost Patrol Team (Protela) as soon as the Protela team made the arrest.

"The three individuals involved distributed leaflets of a political party in Block A8 of the Royal Malaysian Navy Family Quarters (RKTLDM), which has been gazetted as a restricted area.

"The three arrested were aged 19 to 33, and police have opened investigation papers according to Section 24B of the Election Offences Act 1954," he said in a statement today.

According to him, campaigning should not be carried out in places gazetted as restricted areas, as stipulated in the Protected Areas and Protected Places Act 1959 (Act 298).

"Any individual found to have failed to comply with this matter may be subject to imprisonment or a fine, as provided in Section 7 of the same law.

"We advise all contesting parties to comply with all existing rules and laws during the GE15 campaign period," he said.

The Lumut parliamentary constituency has 8,327 early voters, consisting of military personnel and their spouses, and of that number, 787 people are postal voters.

Three schools, namely Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Pangkalan TLDM, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SK) Pangkalan TLDM and SK Pangkalan TLDM 2 are being used as polling centres, with 18 channels available for voting.

-- BERNAMA