This comes after several Cabinet members were spotted at events in Cameron Highlands, before the official campaign period which begins tomorrow.

Bersih chairman Thomas Fann said no event organised by the government or the opposition should be held to gain support before the campaign period.

“The law needs to be clear on what cannot be done, because it is currently silent on the use of government machinery for campaigning,” he added.

“As part of electoral law reforms, we propose that laws be enacted to make it an offence for government resources to be used to campaign for a candidate.”

He also voiced concern over allegations that ministers had used government resources to campaign for their parties.

“It is not wrong for ministers to support their party’s candidates, but they should separate government matters from politics,” he said.

Campaigning for the Cameron Highlands by-election will run from Jan 12 to 25. Polling day is slated for Jan 26.

The by-election was triggered after the Election Court declared the May 9 results void on grounds of bribery.

DAP’s M Manogaran will represent Pakatan Harapan in a bid to win the seat which he lost last year. He will be up against Barisan Nasional’s candidate Ramli Mohd Nor and MyPPP’s M Kayvaes.

Even before nomination day, ministers were seen attending events with locals in Cameron Highlands. However, they denied being there because of the by-election.