PKR calls EC chief ‘big liar’ over Selangor voter roll flap

Abdul Aziz had accused PKR of lying in its audit of Selangor’s electoral roll.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — PKR has labelled Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof a “great liar” for saying the party had misrepresented facts when claiming of discrepancies in Selangor’s voter roll.

PKR secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution stood by his party’s recent audit report, insisting that the exercise had not been carried out just to discredit the EC.

“He (Abdul Aziz) can come up with whatever excuse he wants. I maintain that our report was credible,” the Machang MP told The Malaysian Insider.

During a media briefing yesterday, Abdul Aziz had accused PKR of lying in its audit of Selangor’s electoral roll, saying the party had misrepresented facts when exposing alleged discrepancies in voter registration.

The EC chief said during a recent Bernama TV programme with Saifuddin, the PKR leader had shown reporters a “cropped” photograph of a “pondok” (small hut) in Kampung Sungai Pusu in Gombak and alleged that there were 18 voters registered to that single address.

“I asked him to show us that photograph and we took it for further study. But when the EC went to the area, it turned out that the hut was actually a parking lot for motorcycles and there are actually 32 families living in that one village.

“The photograph had been cropped,” Abdul Aziz had told the media, saying that this proved the opposition party had lied when claiming of discrepancies in Selangor’s voter roll.

Saifuddin said the party stands by its report.

He later showed the media photographs taken by the EC’s officers during their visit to Kampung Sungai Pusu.

According to Abdul Aziz, some of the 32 families residing in the small village use the small hut for its correspondence address, where the post box is located.

But Saifuddin denied today that the EC chief had ever taken the photographs from him to later verify, saying during the programme he had merely shown him the picture on his I-Pad.

“In that sense, I can say that he is a great liar. I merely showed him the picture.

“Unless his memory is so great, he managed to go to the same place to try and prove us wrong.

“I maintain that the address we showed him is a hut and it is not a parking lot.

“I maintain that our source, our report, is credible,” he said.

Saifuddin added that he has already instructed party workers to prepare a statement on the matter.

He said he may even hold a press conference at the site tomorrow.

Saifuddin also recalled that during the same programme, Abdul Aziz had repeatedly asked for a copy of PKR’s audit of Selangor’s voter roll.

While the PKR leader said the party’s main purpose for the audit was to ensure the roll was free of discrepancies, he said it was the EC’s role to search for these mistakes.

“The reason for their existence is to conduct polls and ensure the roll is clean. They should assist us, not look at us like we are enemies.

“So only if they are prepared to accept criticism, we are prepared to work with them,” he said.

The Selangor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government recently declared that it will not hold state elections when the federal Barisan Nasional (BN) calls them unless the EC is able to show the gazetted electoral roll to be used in GE13 has been cleared of dubious entries.

In its latest electoral statistics gazetted last August 16 made available to The Malaysian Insider, the EC recorded the number of registered voters as 13,052,374 people, out of whom 12,778,127 fall into the category of ordinary voters while 274,247 are recorded as absent voters. The latter group encompasses the armed forces, the police and overseas voters.

Selangor recorded the largest number of overseas voters, currently standing at 579 people, while the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur has the highest number of absent voters with 40,543 people. This is followed by Perak with 38,367 voters and Johor a distant third with 25,058 voters.