The knee-jerk reaction of the Election Commission (EC) to 'clean' the electoral roll after irregularities were highlighted by the media, has raised the question whether the electoral roll can simply be amended at the commission's whims and fancies.
In the past two weeks, members of the public and the opposition have been pointing out various flaws in the electoral roll including voters with a double identity, a voter wrongly named as 'Kg Baru'and voters withMyKad numbersthat do not exist.
Whenever an irregularity was unearthed, the EC would scramble to correct it, either by arbitrarily changing the relevant voters' details or deleting their names from the electoral roll.
This is in stark contrast to earlier statements by the EC deputy chairperson Wan Ahmad Wan Omar that data in the electoral roll cannot simply be changed according to one's wishes.
However, the EC chairperson, Abdul Aziz Yusof, said that the 'cleaning' of the electoral roll is done on a daily basis, based on daily official information from the National Registration Department (NRD) through the Agency Link-up System (Alis).
So far the EC has yet to explain the circumstances that allow its commissioners to make arbitrary changes to the electoral roll without consulting the affected voters or calling for a public inquiry.
Johor PAS Youth chief Suhaizan Kaiat, who has been exposing electoral flaws, urged the EC to come clean on this issue.
“According to the election law, the electoral roll is a very strong item of evidence to determine whether an individual is a voter or not,” he said, quoting Clause 14 of the Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981.
It states that: “The electoral rolls for the time being in force shall be prima facie evidence for the purpose of determining whether a person is or is not entitled to vote at an election in any constituency”.
Hence voters' details in the electoral roll must not be changed easily, Suhaizan stressed.
“What is the stand operating procedure (SOP) to change the electoral roll? The EC must define it clearly,” he said when contacted yesterday.
On the issue, electoral reform movement Bersih 2.0 said that it is mulling to take the EC to court.
'These are not clerical errors'
In an interview with Malaysiakini last week, Bersih 2.0 chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan expressed the same concern over the EC's knee-jerk reaction to arbitrarily delete or amend voters' details.
“I'm not sure they can actually do that - just remove names and put names and change things. They will say they are operating under regulations that entitle them to correct clerical errors,” she said.
“But these are not clerical errors... so I'm not sure under what law they are proceeding to do this cleaning which they said they are doing on a daily basis,” said Ambiga, who is also a former president of the Malaysian Bar.
In another related development, Suhaizan said the EC'sexplanation on the issue of voters having a double identity in the electoral roll, has completely missed the point.
On Wednesday, the EC's secretary, Kamaruddin Mohamed Baria, issued a statement denying any irregularities and arguing that voters having the same names are legitimate electors.
For example, he said the name Azhar Ahmad is shared by 825 electors, Mansor Ahmad by 229 and Besah Mat by 14.
Responding to Kamaruddin, Suhaizan said that the crux of the issue is not voters sharing the same name, but the almost identical MyKad numbers belong to voters sharing the same name.
From his study, he found six patterns in these suspicious MyKad numbers, including two numbers that are only different in year of birth, two numbers only different in month of birth and two numbers only different in the last two digits.
“For every pattern, there are hundreds or thousands of pairs of MyKad numbers. The National Registration Department (NRD) must explain.
“The EC should take proactive action to check these voters and verify them with NRD, not just wait until we point them out,” he said.
Kamaruddin's denial is also contrary to Abdul Aziz's statement whichadmitted that double registration of voters occurred in the electoral roll.
Abdul Aziz said voters who are registered with a non-active MyKad will be deleted from the electoral roll subject to NRD's confirmation. - Malaysiakini
In the past two weeks, members of the public and the opposition have been pointing out various flaws in the electoral roll including voters with a double identity, a voter wrongly named as 'Kg Baru'and voters withMyKad numbersthat do not exist.
Whenever an irregularity was unearthed, the EC would scramble to correct it, either by arbitrarily changing the relevant voters' details or deleting their names from the electoral roll.
This is in stark contrast to earlier statements by the EC deputy chairperson Wan Ahmad Wan Omar that data in the electoral roll cannot simply be changed according to one's wishes.
However, the EC chairperson, Abdul Aziz Yusof, said that the 'cleaning' of the electoral roll is done on a daily basis, based on daily official information from the National Registration Department (NRD) through the Agency Link-up System (Alis).
So far the EC has yet to explain the circumstances that allow its commissioners to make arbitrary changes to the electoral roll without consulting the affected voters or calling for a public inquiry.
Johor PAS Youth chief Suhaizan Kaiat, who has been exposing electoral flaws, urged the EC to come clean on this issue.
“According to the election law, the electoral roll is a very strong item of evidence to determine whether an individual is a voter or not,” he said, quoting Clause 14 of the Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981.
It states that: “The electoral rolls for the time being in force shall be prima facie evidence for the purpose of determining whether a person is or is not entitled to vote at an election in any constituency”.
Hence voters' details in the electoral roll must not be changed easily, Suhaizan stressed.
“What is the stand operating procedure (SOP) to change the electoral roll? The EC must define it clearly,” he said when contacted yesterday.
On the issue, electoral reform movement Bersih 2.0 said that it is mulling to take the EC to court.
'These are not clerical errors'
In an interview with Malaysiakini last week, Bersih 2.0 chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan expressed the same concern over the EC's knee-jerk reaction to arbitrarily delete or amend voters' details.
“I'm not sure they can actually do that - just remove names and put names and change things. They will say they are operating under regulations that entitle them to correct clerical errors,” she said.
“But these are not clerical errors... so I'm not sure under what law they are proceeding to do this cleaning which they said they are doing on a daily basis,” said Ambiga, who is also a former president of the Malaysian Bar.
In another related development, Suhaizan said the EC'sexplanation on the issue of voters having a double identity in the electoral roll, has completely missed the point.
On Wednesday, the EC's secretary, Kamaruddin Mohamed Baria, issued a statement denying any irregularities and arguing that voters having the same names are legitimate electors.
For example, he said the name Azhar Ahmad is shared by 825 electors, Mansor Ahmad by 229 and Besah Mat by 14.
Responding to Kamaruddin, Suhaizan said that the crux of the issue is not voters sharing the same name, but the almost identical MyKad numbers belong to voters sharing the same name.
From his study, he found six patterns in these suspicious MyKad numbers, including two numbers that are only different in year of birth, two numbers only different in month of birth and two numbers only different in the last two digits.
“For every pattern, there are hundreds or thousands of pairs of MyKad numbers. The National Registration Department (NRD) must explain.
“The EC should take proactive action to check these voters and verify them with NRD, not just wait until we point them out,” he said.
Kamaruddin's denial is also contrary to Abdul Aziz's statement whichadmitted that double registration of voters occurred in the electoral roll.
Abdul Aziz said voters who are registered with a non-active MyKad will be deleted from the electoral roll subject to NRD's confirmation. - Malaysiakini
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