The Election Commission chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman denies that there are 2.8 million phantom voters in the electoral rolls as stated by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently.

In an exclusive interview with malaysiakini , the EC chief said the number was wrong and that the prime minister whom he described as a "very busy man" had been "misled" before making the statement.

He explained the figures came from certain people who compared the names on the electoral rolls with those at the National Registration Department (NRD).

"If you do that, I think, there are 3.5 million voters with different address. But that does not mean that they are phantom voters. Who lives on the address stated in their IC? I don't. People move, they get married, they change jobs."

Abdul Rashid conceded that it was not an offence for anyone to cast their votes at places which is not stated in their identification documents.

But he warned of another category of voters where political parties register names in constituencies where they have no residential or work history.

"There is the other category, the planted voters. PAS is doing this! PAS has done it cleverly. (The number is) not so much but (they do it) every year under the old law. They found it convenient to do so because there were plenty of loopholes. We were also relaxed then. These are religious people, cheating," he said, adding that he has documents to prove his allegations.

Real phantoms

The 60-year-old top civil servant said the real phantom voters are those who vote using dead people's identification documents on polling day. This, he added, is rampant in Sabah and Sarawak.

The commission will also ensure that the 20,000 to 30,000 Thai nationals, who also have the identity cards issued by the NRD, not be allowed to cast their votes as they had done previously.

"We have to weed them out... they stay in Thailand... They don't have any connection at all with the country, yet they come on polling day," he said.

Commenting on the recent redelineation exercise, Abdul Rashid denied the accusations that it was proposed to curb the opposition parties' influence in the coming general election.

"People say that we take the actions solely because of political consideration, when the stability of the country is also our responsibility. Mind you, we cannot just ignore this. We make sure that the minorities are not sidelined," he said.

He said the whole exercise was made to ensure that each constituency represents all major races in the country and this was in line with the national aspiration in bringing about an integrated Malaysian society.

"We do not need to explain our policy to people all the time. What we try to do is to balance (the different racial groups). Because, you know, all political parties are racial! I have to break this. It is my responsibility. I don't have to tell this to the world," he said.

"I played a major role to stabilise the country. I want to make sure that all races work together to win a seat.

He explained that this was the reason why there was no proposal for an increase of seats in the states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah, which is mostly populated by the Malays.

"I was looking at the issue from a different angle, not just the government telling us not to increase seats in Kelantan, Terengganu or Kedah, no... I don't increase seats in constituency where it is very racial," he said.

Abdul Rashid was involved in organising four previous general elections, and the coming polls will be his first foray as EC boss.

Election deposits

The EC chief also announced that the electoral deposits for parliamentary seats will be RM10,000, while the state seats will be RM5,000 for the next general election, due before the end of 2004.

He said the deposit hike was introduced to reduce the number of candidates "who are not serious" and those who register as candidates with "hopes of being bought over".

"We have characters who put in their name, wait outside to be called, when they are called, (there is) some short (of a) discussion, they will suddenly pull out. Double the money, withdraw- lah !"

When asked if the commission has intention to make way for fair media coverage for all political parties, Abdul Rashid said the EC can only try to persuade the information minister to allow some "air time" for opposition parties.

"I asked the minister to give 10 to 15 minutes of air time to opposition parties for them to explain party policies and platform, talk about their economic, education, social or religious policies. Of course, PAS will talk on this, then people will go to sleep," he quipped.

As to the private TV stations, he said the commission has no power on them as they are private companies.

"The mainstream media is privately owned. I cannot do much. I can advise but nothing more. What do you expect, they are owned by the politicians."