PAS to expose 'a huge number' of cloned voters

PAS has in its possession of a list of "cloned voters" and the numbers are "shockingly huge", the party's vice-president Husam Musa said today.

PAS would expose the total number in stages, after having lodged an official complaint on the first 500 "clones" the Islamic political party had detected recently, he said.

"We will arrange for a conference. We will display to everyone, and the media can double-check on this," Husam (left) added.

However, he declined to reveal the number of persons whose names appear twice in the electoral rolls, but promised to supply the list to the mass media.

He reiterated that PAS opposes the biometric system for voters the Election Commission (EC) has proposed, saying it did not resolve the problem of recurring voters.

"Why waste so much money (on the biometric system), instead of using indelible ink?" Husam asked.

The EC has previously brushed off allegations of multiple voting, asserting that no one person had voted twice.

EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof only accepted that the purported “clone identities” could have resulted from a glitch in the system.

'So, whose work is it?'

Husam said the electoral system did not only have a problem of “cloned voters” but the EC could not even explain how this happened in the first place.

“Who is behind all this?” asked the Kelantan executive councillor and Salor assemblyperson, adding that the EC should investigate the claim.

At this juncture, he said, PAS did not intend to pursue legal action to support its claim as he did not belief justice would be served if this was done.

His demand to the EC was also supported by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (left), who said the biometric solution would not resolve claims about phantom and cloned voters.

“In fact, the biometric system is also vulnerable to manipulation by those who manage it because only a few have the expertise in dealing with such a system,” Hadi said.

He stood by the party's demand for the use of indelible ink and automatic registration to end all allegations of a rigged election system.

PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat, on the other hand, supported the implementation of the biometric system “if it is done in a transparent manner”.

Today's issue of the Malay language daily Sinar Harian quoted Nik Aziz as saying that PAS was willing to engage in a dialogue with the EC to hear its proposal on the system.

“Whichever system, whatever it is, must lead to transparency... I'm not referring to just one system (the biometric proposal)... whatever system that is not transparent must be opposed,” the Kelantan menteri besar and PAS spiritual leader added. - Malaysiakini