Gov't agency registering foreign-born as voters

A government agency other than the Election Commission is registering voters who are not Malaysian-born and with incomplete addresses, researchers have found. 

Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project (MERAP) head researcher Ong Kian Ming said an analysis of the third quarter 2011 electoral roll showed this trend in the Gombak, Ampang, Kelana Jaya and Serdang parliamentary constituencies. 

"We suspect that the government agency doing this is the Special Affairs Department (Jasa).

"It is registering voters with addresses that don't have house numbers, streets names, etc," Ong (right) said at a briefing in the Parliament building today. 

He said all of those registered under Code J - which denotes that registration was done by a government agency other than the EC - have identity cards with the ‘Code 71', which indicates that they are born outside Malaysia. 

"It is very suspicious and raises concern that the National Registration Department may be issuing foreigners citizenship, and that Project IC (in Sabah) is replicated in Selangor," he said. 

Ong also claimed that when the EC was asked at a briefing why it allowed those with incomplete addresses onto the roll, an officer replied that the commission was "instructed from above not to ask too many questions" about this. 

[More to follow]