#PrkBalingian: MUKAH CHIEF OF POLICE : POLICE PRESENCE IN RALLIES STANDARD PROCEDURE

MUKAH: "The presence of policemen in rally venues and during campaigns are standard procedure during elections and they are there to keep the peace," Mukah Chief of Police Omar Bakhtiar said yesterday.

"With that in mind, the issue of policemen being near these rallies to intimidate the public from attending these rallies regardless of political parties are untrue and should not have been brought up."

He further added that the police do not play favourites and they have been keeping tabs on both parties throughout the campaign.

"Our purpose is to ensure that security during these rallies are under control and this has nothing to do with disturbing any campaigns from either Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat," he mentioned.

He also denied allegations that the police have sent the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) to every opposition rally.

"Usually the unit on duty during campaigns that involve crowds are the Light Force Strike," he iterated before adding further that so far the N51 Balingian by-election has been incident-free.

Until yesterday, despite the allegations of bias the police have issued three rally permits for PKR.

The allegations were first brought up by Mohamad Sabu, PAS Deputy President during a speech he made earlier this week.