Clone voters: PAS wants swift police action - Free Malaysia Today


Clone voters: PAS wants swift police action - Free Malaysia Today
Teoh El Sen
| July 26, 2011

PETALING JAYA: The police must investigate allegations of “clone voters” now that the Election Commission (EC) has confessed to its existence in the electoral rolls.

PAS Youth secretary Khairul Faizi Ahmad Kamil said the discovery of several new cases of “clone voters” is irrefutable proof that phantom voters existed on the EC’s voter lists.

Khairul, who lodged a report at the Dang Wangi police headquarters today, said that since the EC itself had admitted to the existence of “clones”, the police must take immediate action.

“This is serious. These cases seem to show that anyone in Malaysia can get two ICs and two different people can have a same IC number.

“Malaysia’s democracy is now under threat because voting itself is being questioned,” he said.

Khairul’s report was a follow-through to the party’s expose last week.

PAS Youth’s democratic rehabilitation and mobilisation committee chairperson Suhaizan Kaiat last week revealed that one of the main “players” in these “clone voters” cases was the National Registration Department (NRD).

“Two big offences have been made by NRD and EC. One is that the NRD has issued old ICs to two identities.

“Secondly, EC has allowed a voter the right to vote more than once,” said Suhaizan, who is also Johor PAS Youth chief.

Suhaizan had previously revealed the existence of double registration of voters on the electoral rolls.

Double deals

The first case involved one Mariam Su, who was registered with two new registered identity cards (NRIC) – 720616025472 and 720610025738.

This was despite her having only one old IC with the number A2278510.

A second case involved one S Murugan, who was registered with the same birth date, gender but was registered as a voter in both state and parliamentary constituencies.

Murugan had two NRICs that are nearly identical save for the last four digits.

Murugan, whose old IC number was A2909056, is currently registered under two NRICs, 731002025877 and 731002025201.

Today, Suhaizan also provided another two examples of “double registration” in the electoral roll.

He said two voters with different names are Low Kim Lian and Tom binti Din. Both were registered under the same old IC 1790975.

Both are voting in the same state and parliamentary constituency.

Another case is of one Baharom Abd Rahman. He has the same birth date, gender but is registered in a different voting locality.

He is registered under 550331025859/4774090 and RF65018 (believed to be identity for postal vote).

“All these are proof of mistakes, and there are many more. How could there be such problems that NRD and EC did not verify in the first place?

“There’s something wrong with their SOP (standard operating procedure),” Suhaizan said.

EC ‘U-turn’

Suhaizan noted that despite proof of overlapping data in the electoral rolls, the EC has no right to strike out the compromised list unless someone goes through a lengthy court process.

He said this was because under Section 14 of the Election (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981, the electoral roll serves as evidence to determine whether a person is entitled to vote.

Suhaizan also said that EC is making a mistake in saying that it is confident in its election process.

“The EC does not understand the problem: the biometric system can only be used when you have a complete and authentic electoral roll.

“At this point in time and until we have solved problems with the integrity of the electoral roll, this system is not suitable for Malaysia,” he said.

On Sunday, The Star quoted EC deputy Wan Ahmad Wan Omar as saying that the EC needs the help of political parties and individuals to purge “clones” from the electoral rolls.

He admitted that there were clones, saying that the EC had “never denied the existence of clones”.

Wan Ahmad’s statement has been termed a “U-turn” by PAS, as the EC had previously denied the existence of phantom voters.

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