Sarawak police have uncovered several cases of people trying to make a quick buck on the election by wagering on the results.

State police chief Talib Jamal today said a few cases have been identified and firm action will be taken against syndicates and bookies found to have organised such activities.

In view of this, he added all district police chiefs in the state have been instructed to monitor illegal gambling activities.

"We (Sarawak police) want to monitor and tackle the problem at the source and will come down hard on them, not so much on those who place the bets but on the syndicates organising it," he was quoted as saying in a Bernama report.

On public security in the run-up to the election, Talib said the police were on 24-hour surveillance in every district with the deployment of 7,500 personnel solely for election duties.

However, he added that this would not interfere with normal crime prevention duties.

The police chief earlier met 2,500 personnel from the Sarawak police headquarters, general operations force, state police training centre and marine police who will be deployed on election duties.

Negative elements

Meanwhile, Taib said the police have not detected any "imported" negative elements from the Peninular or elsewhere out to destabilise public peace and security in Sarawak.

However, the report did not elaborate on what these negative elements were.

On complaints by some members of the media that they were barred by the police from entering certain nomination centres, Taib assured that such incidents would not occur again.

The media representatives were not permitted entry despite inking the 'sumpah kerahsian' (vow of secrecy) forms in accordance with the election law.

Referring to such an incident in Sebuayau as a "grey area," the police chief said the personnel on duty would be informed of such matters in future to prevent any misunderstanding.

He added that under the circumstances, the police should be taking directives from the Election Commission's Returning Officer.