Man arrested for threatening to burn voting slip
A 32-year-old man was arrested on Monday for threatening to burn his voting slip and ballot box on Polling Day.
According to AsiaOne, a man by an online moniker of BigBirdMan had posted his threat on popular online forum HardWareZone.
He posted: "I promised once I vote, I (will) bring a lighter with me and burn the (voting) slip and slot it (into) the ballot box. Burn the whole ballot box."
However, netizens informed the man that it is a criminal offence to do that. He was arrested a week after posting that comment.
The man is also believed to have posted a comment which 'was suggestive of causing hurt to the Members of Parliament'.
He was arrested for Communicating an Electronic Record Containing Incitements to Violence under Section 267C of the Penal Code, Chapter 224. If convicted, the man can be jailed up to five years or fined or both.
"Those who make such remarks online and think that they can hide behind the anonymity of the Internet are mistaken," said Criminal Investigation Department director Hoong Wee Teck.
Mr Hoong also added that the "police will investigate such reports and spare no effort in taking the culprits to task."
Last August, Abdul Malik Mohammed Ghazali was arrested for posting similar comments on Facebook, urging users to "burn" a local cabinet minister. The 27-year-old was questioned by police on his use of words such as "burn", "rally" and "sit-down protest".
Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.
This article is published by Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte. Ltd., 60 Anson Road #13-01 Mapletree Anson, Singapore, 079914.
