‘EC admits to knowing about dubious voters’

But DAP MP Charles Santiago says the commission is hiding behind the law in not doing anything about this.

PETALING JAYA: The Selangor Election Commission is aware that Umno has registered numerous dubious voters in the state, claimed DAP MP Charles Santiago today

The Klang MP said this was revealed to him by Selangor EC director Dzulkifli Abdul Rahman when the duo met when Santiago had gone there to report the case of one S Dinesh from his constituency.

“Dinesh has been residing in the UK for the past 15 years, yet his name was registered without his consent last year,” said Santiago.

Dinesh was registered by the former Umno assistant registrar Hishamuddin Kassim, who was sacked from his post on April 27.

Santiago said that when he questioned Dzulkifli on how many people Hishamuddin had registered, the EC director replied, “Many”.

According to Santiago, Dzulkilfli said that nothing could be done due to Section 9(a) of the Elections Act which bars the removal of registered voters once they had been gazetted.

“When I asked them to make a police report against Hishamuddin, Dzulkifli said they will have to go through the legal team from the Putrajaya EC.

“They know the law has been broken but yet they stay mum on the issue and hide behind Section 9(a),” he added.

Santiago also said that he was referred to the Putrajaya EC again when he had requested for the documents used to register Dinesh.

“They said Putrajaya EC has to investigate the issue first, only then they will be able to give us an answer.

“So we have given them one week to investigate, without resolving these sort of issues we will never have a clean and fair election,” he added.

Santiago said that he has discovered six such cases in his constituency alone, not including those that have not been reported.

“Is somebody else going to vote on behalf of them? These people are abroad and have never registered.

“Dzulkifli told us to list down the names of these dubious voters and present it to the polling and counting agents as it is their responsibility to stop the imposters. This is ridiculous,” he added.

Santiago also said that the EC did not admit nor deny when asked if they and the Immigration Department were linked in any way to political parties.

“They kept quiet and refused to comment on that. How else would one know that a person is abroad if its not through the Immigration Department?” he asked.

Dinesh’s father, K Siva Kumar was also present along with their lawyer.