MELAKA: Pakatan Harapan has claimed that the smartphones of its election director for the Ayer Molek state seat and its candidates for Klebang and Rim have been hacked.

       It alleged that messages were purportedly sent from the phones in question to constituents, threatening to circulate nude pictures of their wives if they did not vote for Pakatan.

       In a joint statement, Melaka PKR chief Datuk Halim Bachik, Semambu (Pahang) assemblyman Lee Chean Chung, and PKR deputy information chief Manivanan Gowin said a police report has been lodged by the three hacking victims.

       They were only informed of the purported hacking at 3pm on Thursday (Nov 19), involving the devices of Klebang candidate Datuk Gue Teck, Rim candidate Prasanth Kumar Brakasam and Ayer Molek election director Wan Mahadi Wan Hussein.

       "The three victims only found out when they were told off by the recipients of the messages.

       "The recipients, all from the Chinese community, said they received messages that private pictures of their wives will be made viral if they do not vote for Pakatan," the statement said.

       "This is a very disgusting action. We are not sure where this message came from, but it definitely comes from (rivals)," it added.

       The statement urged the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and other authorities to investigate the matter and take swift action.

       It also claimed that this was an attempt to distance Chinese voters from Pakatan.

       "We are anticipating such disgusting incidents to increase today (Friday) and also on polling day (Saturday, Nov 20)," it added.

       Perikatan Nasional, Barisan Nasional and Pakatan are fielding candidates in all 28 state seats.

       There are a total of 112 candidates, including 22 independents, five from neophyte Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) and one from Parti Perikatan indian Muslim Nasional (Iman).

       Some 476,000 registered voters are eligible to cast their votes.