The full report can be downloaded here.
The Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project
(MERAP) started in February 2012 with the following objectives: “to conducting
a comprehensive analysis of all possible problems in the electoral roll across
time and space; to highlight different areas of responsibility / jurisdiction
of different government agencies pertaining to problems with the electoral roll;
and to propose methods by which these problems in the electoral roll can be
reduced / rectified”.
With a team of four comprising MERAP Director,
Dr. Ong Kian Ming, a lecturer and political analyst at UCSI University and
three researchers discovered far more problems with the electoral roll than originally
anticipated. In total, 25 types of problems were discovered in the electoral
roll, 15 pertaining to non-postal voters and 10 pertaining to postal voters
(See Appendix 1 for full list of problems).
Some of the preliminary findings of MERAP were
published on Malaysiakini (see Appendix 2 for links to these articles) and has
been reported both in the mainstream as well as online press.
MERAP is disappointed that the Election
Commission has not been sincere in its offer to have a constructive engagement
regarding the problems which the project team has discovered in the electoral
roll. After a closed door presentation by MERAP to the Election Commission on
the 5th of July, 2012, which was facilitated by the Majlis Professor
Negara (MPN), the Election Commission chairman, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof,
extended an offer to Dr. Ong Kian Ming to have future closed door dialogue sessions
where the EC would respond and clarify to other additional problems discovered
in the electoral roll. MERAP then provided the EC with a 36 page report on
problems pertaining to postal voters in the electoral roll on the 1st
of August, 2012. The EC initially promised to meet with MERAP after the Hari
Raya holidays at the end of August 2012. After Dr. Ong announced his decision
to join the DAP on the 27th of August, 2012, the EC responded by
saying ‘since you have become a leader of a political party holding a position,
the EC can no longer meet you as an individual. The decision has been made by
the EC and has been the policy of the EC. The engagement (meet eye to eye) with
the EC has to come from the political party. This is to ensure fairness to all
political parties’. MERAP finds this response totally unacceptable as Dr. Ong
has not resigned from his position as an academic at UCSI nor has MERAP
suddenly stopped being an academic study just because Dr. Ong has joined a
political party.
This is symptomatic of a larger pattern
exhibited by the EC of being defensive when being criticized and wanting to
dictate its own terms when working with other stakeholders who are interested
in making the electoral process in Malaysia more fair and transparent.
It is noteworthy that two out of the six
recommendations made by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform
which have not been implemented or in the process of being implemented – the
setting up of a special task force to deal with voters who submit false
information; and allowing NGOs and political parties to object to the gazetted electoral
roll Labels – have to do with the accuracy of the electoral roll, which is the focus
area of study for MERAP. (For the record, MERAP believes that there are more
than six recommendations by the PSC which have not or are not in the process of
being implemented, the most important being the cleaning up of the electoral
roll). MERAP notes that there have been, to our knowledge, no reported cases of
any individual for making false statements during the process of voter
registration even though there is a provision in the Election Offences Act 1954
that makes this an offense.[1]
MERAP makes the following EIGHT recommendations to strengthen the process of ensuring that
the electoral roll is accurate and transparent:
(i) Strengthen
legislation to make any attempt to manipulate the electoral roll by any person
or party, including the paying voters to change their IC address for the
purposes of changing voting constituency, illegal and punishable by
imprisonment or fine or both
(ii) Thorough
review of the process of issuing ICs and changing IC numbers undertaken by the National Registration Department / Jabatan Pendaftara Negara
(iii) Establishment
of an investigation team by the EC which includes involvement of political
parties, the police and civil society stakeholders to conduct on the ground
investigations into possible manipulation of the electoral roll including
problematic voter registrations[2]
(iv) Establish
a Parliamentary Select Committee on the Electoral Roll as recommended by the
PSC on Electoral Reform to have oversight over the EC’s efforts to clean up the
roll and also to question and make accountable the National Registration
Department
(v) Allowing
political parties and civil society stakeholders to make objections to the
quarterly electoral roll updates as well as the already gazetted electoral roll
(vi) Raising
the limit on the number of objections which a person can make and abolishing
the fee for each objection
(vii) Publish
and make available complete quarterly updates and gazetted electoral roll to
political parties and civil society stakeholders
(viii) Strengthening
capacity within the EC and among the political parties and civil society
stakeholders to detect potential problems in the electoral roll
Needless to say, all of the recommendations
require the cooperation of the EC as well as the related government agencies
and ministers in order for them to be implemented. In terms of strengthening
capacity to detect potential problems in the electoral roll, MERAP has prepared
a preliminary ‘Do-It-Yourself’ kit where anyone with access to a personal
computer and a spreadsheet program / software such as excel could analyze any
electoral roll of any constituency in order to detect potential problems.
MERAP may continue with further research and
investigations into the electoral roll if it is successful in future funding
applications. MERAP would like to encourage political parties and civil society
stakeholders to continue to highlight problems pertaining to the electoral roll
as these problems can be found in each quarterly electoral roll update. The
final MERAP report, the DIY kit and MERAP related press articles and videos can
be found at the following website: http://malaysianelectoralrollproject.blogspot.com/[3]
Appendix 1: Full list of Problems Discovered in
the Electoral Roll by MERAP
Non-Postal Voter Problems
1.
Voters who are above 85 years old
2.
Voters with the same name and some with the same / similar date of
birth
3.
Voters with the same name and address
4.
Voters who share the same old IC number
5.
Voters whose old ICs were ‘transferred’ to another voter
6.
Voters being given New New IC numbers
7.
Mismatch in the Date of Birth
8.
Mismatch in the gender indicated by the IC number and EC data
9.
Kod 71 voters with only one name
10.
Voters who do not have House Addresses / No Rumah, even though other
newly registered voters in the same locality have House Addresses / No Rumah
11.
Many Voters registered in one address
12.
‘Foreigners’ in the Electoral Roll
13.
Unknown Additions to and Deletions from the Electoral Roll
14.
Kod-J Government Agency registering suspicious voters
15.
Voters whose IC address is different from their voting constituency
Postal Voter Problems
2.
Marrying oneself
3.
“Flipping” of postal voter IDs
4.
Same voter begin added and
deleted in the same quarterly update
5.
Double registration of postal
voters’ spouse
6.
Flipping of IC
7.
Police officers starting their
careers around / above their retirement age
8.
Spouse of army personnel being
converted as army personnel above maximum recruitment age
9.
Army recruit at above maximum
recruitment age and gets transferred around
10.
Spouse of Non GOF / PGA police
force registered as postal voter
[1] Section 3(1)a of the Election Offences Act 1954 (Act
5) states that Any person who knowingly makes any false statement on or in
connection with any application to be placed on any register of electors should
be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or
to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to both such imprisonment and
fine.
[2] After all, legislation was introduced prior to the
2004 general election to establish an elections enforcement team comprising an
EC officer, a police officer, a local
authority representative and representatives from political parties to monitor
and control the activities of the candidates during the campaign period
(Section 27 of the Election Offences Act 1954 (Act 5))
[3] Dr. Ong Kian Ming would
like to extend his sincerest thanks and gratitude to his research team
especially lead researcher Lee Wee Tak for their excellent work in this
project. He would also like to thank BERSIH 2.0’s organizing committee for
allowing him to share MERAP’s findings at various BERSIH functions around the
country. He can be reached at im.ok.man@gmail.com
