Gerakans wish for clean electoral list a joke: Kit Siang
Gerakan president Lim Keng Yaik's proposal that the next general election should only be called after the Election Commission (EC) has cleaned up the electoral rolls is considered as something 'amusing' by DAP.
Describing Keng Yaik's statement as a 'political joke', DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang alleged that it was Gerakan which masterminded phantom voters in Penang during the 1999 general election.
"A week before the polling day (in 1999), I had pointed out that there were thousands of phantom voters in the Bukit Bendera parliamentary constituency (where Lim contested), particularly 279 phantom voters registered in eight Rifle Range flats when it is impossible to have 30 to 40 voters in a flat," Lim said in a statement.
Thus, Lim said it is questionable whether Keng Yaik is serious about cleaning up phantom voters in Bukit Bendera and other constituencies in Penang which the former Tanjong MP claimed to be planted by Gerakan itself.
DAP questions Gerakan's sincerity in wanting a clean electoral roll as it claims that the latter owes its victory in the 1999 general election to phantom voters. Instead, Lim Kit Siang calls for an automatic registration for those who turn 21.
Gerakan president Lim Keng Yaik's proposal that the next general election should only be called after the Election Commission (EC) has cleaned up the electoral rolls is considered as something 'amusing' by DAP.
Describing Keng Yaik's statement as a 'political joke', DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang alleged that it was Gerakan which masterminded phantom voters in Penang during the 1999 general election.
"A week before the polling day (in 1999), I had pointed out that there were thousands of phantom voters in the Bukit Bendera parliamentary constituency (where Lim contested), particularly 279 phantom voters registered in eight Rifle Range flats when it is impossible to have 30 to 40 voters in a flat," Lim said in a statement.
Thus, Lim said it is questionable whether Keng Yaik is serious about cleaning up phantom voters in Bukit Bendera and other constituencies in Penang which the former Tanjong MP claimed to be planted by Gerakan itself.
One-sided process
Despite Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's concern that there are 2.8 million phantom voters in the country, Lim believed that the actual figure is higher as Umno leaders were only looking at abuses in the Malay-majority constituencies.
"We don't want Barisan Nasional and Umno to demand for a clean-up of phantom voters to end up as a one-sided and selective process, eliminating what they regard as unfavourable phantom voters but retain those who favour them," stressed Lim.
The Opposition Leader of 24 years until he lost in Bukit Bendera in 1999, Lim said there is no reason why the EC, with the co-operation of political parties and civic groups, cannot clean up the electoral rolls to get rid of phantom voters.
Regarding EC chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman's statement that automatic voter registration for those who turn 21 could only be done if the individual's address was updated regularly (each time after the person moves), Lim said "this is not a good excuse".
A superior system
"A system which registers a voter under residential address is definitely superior and more legitimate than a system which excludes the voter," he said.
It is worse, he added, when a phantom voter is allowed to get onto the electoral register with neither residential or work link with the constituency registered.
He added that the need for an automatic voter registration is even more compelling considering the EC's failure to attract eligible voters with only 120,000 out of 1.6 million (or 7.5 percent) have registered through the round-the-year voters' registration exercise.
