Isnin, April 23, 2012

59,000 FOREIGNERS ‘REGISTERED AS VOTERS’, WHAT IS MORE TROUBLING IS THE FACT THAT 49,000 OF THESE ‘FOREIGN’ VOTERS CAN BE FOUND IN SABAH

59,000 foreigners ‘registered as voters’

A political scientist has shed light on more irregularities in the electoral roll and wants to know why the EC has done little to tackle the problem.

KUALA LUMPUR April 23, 2012: Some 59,000 foreigners have been registered as voters in Malaysia due to “gaps” in their details, according to the Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project (MERAP).

MERAP project director Ong Kian Meng said there were “gaps” in their registration details and this has raised suspicion over their status as voters.

He said this today while speaking of his finding at a Bersih-held press conference.

“If you are a Malaysian born abroad, you will have a code ’71′ in your IC. If you don’t have a ’71′, that means you are a foreign-descent born in Malaysia,” he said.

He added that the presence of 59,000 voters raises suspicion as their IC numbers did not contain the “71″ code but they were too old to be born in Malaysia. The 59,000 suspicious voters were among 65,455 foreigners in the electoral roll.

“These voters were born before the 1980s but they don’t have the old IC numbers,” he said.

Adding to the suspicion, Ong said that in the Kudat constituency in Sabah, these foreigners did not have any addresses attached to them.

These data was collected from the electoral roll as at December last year.

“What is more troubling is the fact that 49,000 of these ‘foreign’ voters can be found in Sabah, where problems with foreigners being given fake ICs have long been documented,” he said.

Is there an alternative purpose?

Ong (picture, right) said that this information was obtained from the “race of the voter” category in the Election Commission’s (EC) list.

He said he obtained this detailed list from his sources as the usual voter roll for the public did not contain this category.

He pointed out that there were 65,455 foreigners in the roll including descendants from the Philippines, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Spain, Malta and Slovakia.

Admitting that these cases may be genuine Malaysian voters who are foreigners, Ong said: “I am not saying that there is something wrong with all these voters, but why would the EC be tracking the race of these voters comprehensively? Are they being tracked for an alternative purpose?”

Ong also highlighted cases where names were deleted or added to the voter list without the knowledge of voters.

Analysing both the 2008 and 2010 electoral rolls and cross-referencing with the December 2011 roll, he said that his team had found about 110,000 names which were either deleted or added to the roll without display.

He said that 106,743 names were deleted and 6,762 new ones were added.

“There is a category which indicates why your name is removed or added. For example, if you have passed away, or are now a qualified postal voter.

“But for these names, there were no reasons stated [for deletion or addition],” he said.

EC downplaying cases

Ong also cited the case of 3.1 million non-residential voters, saying the voting constituency of the voters did not correspond with the voters’ IC address.

This is an offence under Article 119 1 (b) of the Federal Constitution, which states that a voter must be a resident in the constituency which he or she is voting in. The law came to effect in 2002.

However, Ong said the EC has a loose interpretation of this law.

He said that this must be cleared; otherwise, the non-residential voters may be registered as phantom voters.

He said that a comprehensive study was conducted by the National Registration Department (NRD) over this matter 10 years ago and the results were given to the EC.

A sampling of about 200 of that data shows that these cases still persist, according to Ong.

“The point is that the EC has all these comprehensive data; so why is it not tackling these problems?

“It raises suspicion that this [problem of irregularities] is larger than what the EC makes it out to be,” he said.

Tarani Palani

34 ulasan:

  1. The Electoral Commission should clean up the voter registration list so that only the legit voters are allowed to vote.

    BalasPadam
    Balasan
    1. senarai daftar nama pemilih memang perlu dibersihkan sebelum pru13..

      Padam
    2. GE13 should be postpone till EC done with cleaning up the voter registration. Everyone hopes for a clean and fair election.

      Padam
    3. SPR sudah meminta kerajaan Persekutuan untuk menangguh PRU-13 sehingga senarai nama pengundi dapat dibersihkan.

      Padam
  2. Hopefully the EC will do their best to ensure that the voting process is clean and fair.

    BalasPadam
  3. What is the value of having an election when the result are tainted??

    BalasPadam
    Balasan
    1. no point at all having an election if the result are always tainted.

      Padam
  4. What a big number! Project ic does happen, isn't it? Bring the culprits into court!

    BalasPadam
    Balasan
    1. pasal tu lah RCI harus ditubuhkan dengan segera.

      Padam
  5. Biar betul. Mana boleh buat macam ni??? Ini tidak adil!

    BalasPadam
  6. EC patut lakukan sesuatu sebelum hal ini bertambah teruk.

    BalasPadam
    Balasan
    1. bersihkan daftar pemilih sebelum tiba PRU.

      Padam
  7. Harap semuanya OK, supaya PRU akan berlangsung tanpa sebarang isu yang mampu menimbulkan ketegangan. hehe

    BalasPadam
  8. Macam mana juga hal ini boleh berlaku??? Adui PRU makin dekat tapi hal ini belum juga selesai. huhuhu

    BalasPadam
    Balasan
    1. ianya disebabkan oleh projek IC...disebabkan itu RCI perlu ditubuhkan sebelum pru13..

      Padam
  9. Apapun, harap hal ini dapat ditanggani dengan baik hanya yang layak saja pergi mengundi nanti.

    BalasPadam
  10. dikatakan 49 ribu daripada 59 ribu nama ini berdaftar sebagai pemilih di sabah..mungkin adalah lebih baik SPR mengugurkan sahaja nama 59 ribu orang ini daripada senarai nama pemilih berdaftar sebelum pru13.

    BalasPadam
    Balasan
    1. SPR juga perlulah membuat penyiasatan terhadap pengundi diragui sebelum mereka disingkirkan daripada senarai nama pengundi, macam mana kalau pengundi sah 'tersingkir' pula tanpa alasan?

      Padam
    2. Rasnya ambil masa juga siasatan ni dibuat sebab bukan sikit tu 59 ribu.

      Padam
  11. diharap kerajaan mengambil berat akan isu ini...

    BalasPadam
  12. BERSIH and PBS sabah has urged the government to set up RCI in sabah. Hopefully we will have a positive feedback from the pm.

    BalasPadam
    Balasan
    1. BN Sabah sudahpun menghantara TOR kepada PM, diharpkan ia akan diluluskan sebelum PRU-13.

      Padam
    2. Bukan kena tunggu sekurang-kurangnya 6 bulan dan maksimum 2 tahun ka baru TOR ni dapat dimuktamadkan??

      Padam
  13. The culprits behind project IC must be caught and be punished heavily for their betrayal. They must be punished for their crime regardless who they are.

    BalasPadam
    Balasan
    1. Buang negeri saja mereka yang terlibat ni.

      Padam
  14. This is really dangerous. Sabah got so many PATI.

    BalasPadam
  15. kena pastikan senarai daftar pemilih benar2 bersih.

    BalasPadam
  16. Orang Sabah saja ba faham keadaan di Sabah. kalau bukan orang Sabah bukan durang faham tu. Semuala ba di Sabah ni orang Sabah padahal pilak.

    BalasPadam
  17. RCI sangat diperlukan. Persekutuan harus serius dalam hal ini.

    BalasPadam
  18. Selamatkan Sabah dari pendatang asing.

    BalasPadam
  19. Pasti isu ini dapat diselesaikan.

    BalasPadam
  20. Isu pendatang tanpa izin memang amat mencabar untuk diselesaikan.

    BalasPadam
  21. Mereka yang meragukan sebagai pengundi perlulah disiasat sebaiknya adakah mereka itu benar-benar layak mengundi atau tidak.

    BalasPadam
  22. Azmin, Wan Azizah, Saifuddin dan beberapa pemimpin dalam pakatan menggunakan kod 71 dalam kad pengenalan mereka.. maknanya mereka ini bukan 100% penduduk Malaysia la kan??

    BalasPadam