Air Asia's Fernandes: No foreigners were flown to vote

Air Asia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony  Fernandes has dismissed rumours that the government had chartered flights from Sabah and Sarawak to the peninsula for a group of foreigners in order for them to vote for Barisan Nasional.

Fernandes  in his tweet  wrote, “Every person that came on the flight was a Malaysian mostly Sabahans living in JB. My staffs said mostly are families.”

“From visible checks as, all were Malaysians. I repeat 478 all Malaysians. No foreigners. No naturalised foreigners.”

Fernandes also wrote that it was no issue at all to get Bersih and Pakatan Rakyat leaders to check on the allegations after a Twitter user with the tweethandle @esKahn made the suggestion to Fernandes.

@esKahn wrote, “For greater transparency, how about allowing official reps from Bersih and PR to check?”

To that, Fernandes said, “No issue at all. Ambiga (Bersih chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan) can come herself.”

On Friday, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in a news report accused the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) of chartering flights to a large group of foreigners to the peninsula to vote for BN.

Anwar who claimed to have received an email from the top executives of an airline company stated that from April 25, there were as many as 16 flights chartered each day starting from April 25 departing from Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Miri and Sibu.

“Based on our calculation, as many as 4,500 people are being transported via the flights into KL International Airport (KLIA) each day. This means at least 40,500 dubious individuals have and are still entering via this method of chartered flights via KLIA,” Anwar was quoted as saying.

The PMO in a report denied that it is involved in a scheme to fly in phantom voters from Sabah and Sarawak to peninsular Malaysia on chartered flights to vote in today’s polls.

A government spokesperson was quoted as saying, “The Prime Minister’s office denies any involvement in these flights. The Election Commission has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the electoral system is stronger than ever, and the elections are free and fair.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar had refuted the opposition claims, he was reported as saying,  "There are rumours many foreigners were brought in to vote - Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indonesians - but it is impossible that this will happen.”

He assured the public that the police will act on it should there be any complaints.