“Despite continuous public pressure, the Election Commission continues to err in updating voters and registering new voters on its electoral roll,” Bersih’s steering committee said.
“Without a doubt, the EC has failed to meet Bersih 2.0 Demand #1 – clean up the electoral roll. “As highlighted by Ong Kian Ming, director of the Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project (Merap), there are some 3.1 million potential non-resident voters that need to be cleaned up.
“This figure, where 3.1 million voters in Peninsular Malaysia whose IC addresses do not correspond with their voting constituencies, was in fact identified by the National Registration Department (NRD) in a project called ‘Projek SPR'.
“The findings from this project were found in 2002, where the discrepancies constituted 37 percent of the then 8.3 million voters in Peninsular Malaysia,” the committee said in a statement today.
Errors inexcusable
Bersih also referred to numerous cases of voter registration errors still being revealed.
Among them, an individual with an IC address in Kelantan has found himself registered as a voter in Tangkak, Johor.
Another
voter who had applied for her constituency to be transferred from
Mambau to Paya Jeras, also found that she was incorrectly assigned to
the state constituency of Taman Melati, said Bersih.Meanwhile, steering committee member Liau Kok Fah, who had been declared “deceased” by the EC, still remains out of the roll.
“Bersih 2.0 has been approached previously by other individuals who faced similar errors in their voter registration, many of whom had gone on the lodge complaints with the EC.
“These errors, which have been committed repeatedly by the EC, are inexcusable as such errors deprive registered voters of their right to vote in their constituencies,” said the committee.
The committee reiterated the need to “immediately remove the current team at the EC and allow for fresh commissioners to be appointed” if clean elections are to be ensured for GE13.
Pointing to a recent survey that showed public confidence on the electoral process to be at an all time low, the committee added, “We have given sufficient time and cooperated with both the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on electoral reforms and the EC on how to improve the electoral process, but the result is far from being positive and instead, appears to be deteriorating.”
Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/199656
© 2012 Malaysiakini. All rights reserved.
