‘EC shifting boundaries secretly’

The EC knows it is an illegal act, says PKR.

KUALA LUMPUR: PKR today hit out at the Election Commission (EC) for allegedly moving voters by shifting the electoral boundaries clandestinely.

Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah said that the EC admitted that it had been moving voters and that it was doing something illegal.

“This is because the EC can only adjust the voters within the parliamentary constituency under the ‘belah bahagi’ (divisions) exercise,” he said, referring to the Section 7 of the Election’s Act.

He was referring to EC deputy chairman, Wan Ahmad Wan Omar’s clarification on the case of Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim.

Khalid just found out last week that his voting constituency had changed from Petaling Jaya Selatan (PJS) to Lembah Pantai.

He was not informed of this change but found out when the media reported about it.

Explaining this change, Wan Ahmad was quoted in Malaysiakini as saying, “he [Khalid] has not been moved. He is still registered at the same address but the boundaries have been moved in accordance with the Election Act 1958″.

Said Sivarasa: “He [Wan Ahmad] can openly say that the EC has moved the boundaries when he knew it was an illegal act.”

When FMT spoke to Wan Ahmad last week, he refuted the numerous allegations made by the opposition pertaining to the clandestine movement of voters.

He explained that Khalid’s voting constituency was moved as a result of a “correction of locality” process, which is done to synchronise the polling districts to reflect the size of the constituencies on the ground.

Legal framework
Wan Ahmad said that the EC acted within its legal framework as this was merely an administrative exercise.

He added that this was not a delineation exercise which needed to be passed by Parliament and dismissed claims that this was a “belah-bahagi” exercise.

But Sivarasa took the EC to task over this explanation, arguing this was not a case of administrative changes.

“Seat boundaries have nothing to do with administrative boundaries. The EC says it is synchronising but that is not relevant to seat boundaries which are drawn under the delineation process.

“The EC is secretly shifting voters by moving boundaries. This is serious; the commission is supposed to be the custodian of the electoral roll,” he said.

Sivarasa also said that he had lodged an official report to the EC and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in Shah Alam on this “illegal” movement of voters, among other allegations.

His report focused on the movement of voters in his constituency.

This report was based on allegation highlighted in the media previously, where there was a 35% increase of voters in his area during the past four years.

The report also pointed out the 208 known cases where voters were moved through the “belah-bahagi” exercise.