IT has been a while since incarcerated ex-premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak took a swipe at his so-called political guru, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

How the Pekan MP was able to level his criticism on Dr Mahathir from his prison cell at ‘lightning speed’ is anybody’s guess given that he was able to do so only one hour apart from the time the latter penned his regrets on Facebook over the numerous weaknesses in Malaysia’s election process.

After all, Najib who is affably known by his moniker Bossku is supposedly detached from the outside world without any access to telecommunication devices, including internet.

In his Facebook post, Dr Mahathir has expressed regret that the Election Commission (EC) refused to listen to any criticism regarding weaknesses which if left unchecked, would lead to incidents of corruption and cheating during the forthcoming 15^th General Election (GE15).

This includes allowing mobile (smart) phones to be carried into polling stations.

“It seems that cell phones can expose the secrecy of voting. Political parties can use such information for bribing purpose,” revealed the two-term ex-premier. “Voters can display over their phones that they have voted for a particular party/candidate who will then pay voters a certain sum of money.”

“And there are many more electoral weaknesses that the EC needs to fix before GE15,” added the 97-year-old Langkawi MP.

In his counter-argument, Najib rationalised that headphones with camera have existed over 20 years ago, including the time when the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition won the 14^th General Election (GE14) on May 9, 2018.

“There have been 12 by-elections and four state elections since the GE14. Suddenly Tun M said that handphone can expose secrecy of voting in addition to triggering corruption and fraud in GE15,” he justified.

“Suddenly he wants handphones banned on the GE15’s polling day. Why when Tun M was the seventh PM, he never forbade that?” – Oct 20, 2022