Posted on 24 April 2012 - 05:25am
Last updated on 24 April 2012 - 10:05am
KUALA LUMPUR (April 23, 2012): An independent electoral monitoring group claimed the Election Commission (EC) had failed to include a 10-year research conducted by the National Registration Department as part of its mandate to clean up the electoral roll.
Last updated on 24 April 2012 - 10:05am
KUALA LUMPUR (April 23, 2012): An independent electoral monitoring group claimed the Election Commission (EC) had failed to include a 10-year research conducted by the National Registration Department as part of its mandate to clean up the electoral roll.
Speaking at a press conference called by the Coalition for Clean and
Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) yesterday, Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis
Project (Merap) project director Ong Kian Ming said the research had
been made available to the EC since 2002 before the implementation of
the new registration system where all voters must register according to
the constituency as per the addresses in their identity cards.
The research included presence of non-resident voters in voting constituencies, phantom voters, foreign citizens given fake identity cards and the removal of registered voters without their knowledge, he said.
“Through our preliminary findings at Merap there are grave concerns about potential irregularities in the electoral roll and Malaysia is far from having the cleanest electoral roll in the world,” Ong said.
He was responding to EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof’s statement last week that Malaysia’s electoral roll is the cleanest in the world, as only 42,000 out of 12.6 million voters, or 0.3%, are considered unverifiable.
Ong said omitting information related to non-residential users contravenes article 119(b) of the Federal Constitution which states a voter must be a resident in the constituency which the voter resides.
Bersih steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah, who was present, said the research indicated a serious problem in the electoral roll which has affected the EC’s role to uphold its mandate for clean and fair elections.
Ong said his research found that 90% of foreign nationals given fake identity cards were concentrated in Sabah.
Other findings include the data of 106,743 voters which were deleted, and 6,762 voters added to the electoral roll without public display between the end of 2010 to the third quarter of 2011.
He said in total there 3.4 million cases or approximately 27% of data in the current electoral roll needed to be probed.
Ong urged for the EC to conduct a more comprehensive and systematic approach to study the electoral roll.
Source: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/357943
The research included presence of non-resident voters in voting constituencies, phantom voters, foreign citizens given fake identity cards and the removal of registered voters without their knowledge, he said.
“Through our preliminary findings at Merap there are grave concerns about potential irregularities in the electoral roll and Malaysia is far from having the cleanest electoral roll in the world,” Ong said.
He was responding to EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof’s statement last week that Malaysia’s electoral roll is the cleanest in the world, as only 42,000 out of 12.6 million voters, or 0.3%, are considered unverifiable.
Ong said omitting information related to non-residential users contravenes article 119(b) of the Federal Constitution which states a voter must be a resident in the constituency which the voter resides.
Bersih steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah, who was present, said the research indicated a serious problem in the electoral roll which has affected the EC’s role to uphold its mandate for clean and fair elections.
Ong said his research found that 90% of foreign nationals given fake identity cards were concentrated in Sabah.
Other findings include the data of 106,743 voters which were deleted, and 6,762 voters added to the electoral roll without public display between the end of 2010 to the third quarter of 2011.
He said in total there 3.4 million cases or approximately 27% of data in the current electoral roll needed to be probed.
Ong urged for the EC to conduct a more comprehensive and systematic approach to study the electoral roll.
Source: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/357943
