Nearly half new postal voters ineligible to join military - PKR

KUALA LUMPUR - A total of 3,900 new army and police voters gazetted in the fourth quarter of last year were above the eligible age to join the force, Pakatan Rakyat claimed yesterday.

PKR vice president Fuziah Salleh claimed that the names were among 8,707 ordinary voters nationwide who were struck off the electoral roll in the third quarter, and converted into new postal voters.

“The maximum age to join the army or police force is 30-years-old. Based on the electoral roll, the oldest voter on the list is 61-years-old,” the Kuantan MP told reporters during a press conference at Parliament lobby.

“How can the Election Commission allow this to happen?” she questioned.

The names on the electoral roll were identified as ‘masuk polis’ (joined police) and ‘masuk tentera’ (joined military).

Meanwhile, PKR vice president Chua Tian Chang also urged the Election Commission (EC) to allow for an audit to be conducted on its entire system.

“Mimos Berhad has only conducted an audit on voters records, but not on the system used by EC,” said the Batu MP.

The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) for Electoral Reforms in its interim report had recommended the EC conduct an audit of the electoral roll, and Mimos in its report to the PSC on Feb 14 had said it found some 200,000 names of “dubious” voters.

Tian Chua said these latest “proof” of irregularities in the electoral roll would be submitted to the PSC, which will be meeting later in the day.

In an immediate response, Election Commission deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar told theSun that nobody should jump to conclusions over the claims.

He called on Fuziah to approach EC with her findings and work together with the commission to get to the bottom of the matter.

"How did she arrive at these figures, and how did she know that 8,707 were converted and 3,900 are above the eligible age?" he said.

"To be fair to EC, furnish us with the details of which camps the new voters are registered to, and their respective identifiers such as identity card numbers and police/army numbers. Then we can conduct our own investigations into the matter to clear the air," he added.

He said that the opposition should not make sweeping statements without providing specifics, especially since the EC is in serious discussions with the Parliamentary Select Committee on electoral reforms to clean up the electoral roll, with the aim of being open and transparent.

-thesundaily