PKR still sceptical over EC's postal voters explanation
Perak PKR is still viewing at the Elections Commission with suspicion despite its denial of a spike in the electoral rolls for the state.
Perak PKR is still viewing at the Elections Commission with suspicion despite its denial of a spike in the electoral rolls for the state.
"Maybe after the issue was highlighted in the press, they took out the increments. We can only find out if they were to add it in again right before the general elections," said Perak PKR deputy election director Chan Ming Kai.
He had earlier claimed that there was a sudden jump in postal voters for several constituencies, especially the Pangkor state seat which saw an increase of 5,669 since 2008.
However, the EC's voter registration division secretary Yusniati Ishak had refuted his allegations, saying that number had remained steady at the 1,356 figure since the March 2008 elections.
And Chan (left) is stumped by the explanation, though he reckoned that proving the EC wrong could prove to be an uphill battle.
"It is still hard to prove because they are postal voters. Unlike normal civilians whose houses we can go to, to verify their status, it is not like we can go to the naval base in Lumut (situated in the Pangkor constituency) and ask them if they have registered.
Registration done the military way
"Unlike normal voters who would have probably registered at post offices or during registration drives, the entire name list of new voters are submitted to the EC by the camp. It's not even the army personnel who submits it himself.
"The forms are all already filled up for him and he just has to put his signature down," Chan claimed when speaking to Malaysiakini.
"That's why I disagree with the (EC deputy chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar) who said that voter registration ‘awareness' only increased in the third quarter of 2010," he added.
Pangkor is held by MB Zambry Abd Kadir who had previously won the seat with a comfortable 5,785-vote majority against PKR's Pkhrazi @ Pakhrazi Muda.
However, the parliamentary constituency where Pangkor sits, Lumut, saw only a narrow for MCA secretary-general Kong Cho Ha with a 298-vote majority.
Increment only in third quarter 2010
Chan's main bone of source of contention is that the rise - totalling 8,470 according to him - mainly occurred during the third quarter of last year (July to September).
Five parliamentary constituencies and the state constituencies in them - Grik, Parit, Lumut, Ipoh Timur and Taiping - had the draft of their Q3 2010 rolls held back after protests from Pakatan Rakyat.
But on receiving the draft of the rolls from the Elections Commission updated until last December, Pakatan noticed the jump.
However, Chan acknowledged that the rolls have yet to be gazetted, allowing room for protests.
The rolls for Q3 2010 are crucial for constituencies nationwide . When elections are called, the EC traditionally uses the penultimate gazetted roll, allowing only those whose names appear there to cast their ballots.
With speculation that the general elections could be called as early as middle of this year, well before the 2013 deadline, only those registered before October 2010 will be able to vote.
However, Chan has also spotted a change in the EC pattern.
"The (EC chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof) said that anyone who registers before March this year can vote in the Sarawak elections. So if we were to follow that trend and if snap polls were to be called in June, then the EC may use the Q1 2011 rolls as the cut off point.
"And maybe the postal voters could be deposited again in the Q1 rolls," said Chan.
