PKR claims extra votes appeared in ballot box

PKR today began revealing its claims on electoral fraud in detail, zooming in on the parliamentary constituency of Balik Pulau where, mysteriously, more ballots were cast than what was actually issued.

PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli claimed that at stream two of the polling station at SJK(C) Yu Chye, Form 13 showed that a total of 424 votes were issued.

However, Rafizi said, after the results were tallied, Form 14 showed that there were 562 votes in the ballot box, a surplus of 138 votes more than the number issued.

PKR received 369 votes, BN received 189 votes and four were spoilt votes. Balik Pulau was won by BN with a 1,539-vote majority. There were 612 votes tagged as spoilt.

“With the small majority and the high number of spoilt votes, the results in stream two alone are enough to sway the results of the Balik Pulau parliamentary constituency and its state seat of Telok Bahang,” Rafizi told a press conference at the PKR headquarters this morning.

Furthermore, the first-term Pandan MP claimed, the serial numbers of the ballot papers issued to voters did not tally with the ballot papers that were received by the returning officer.

'Clearly, an election offence'

"I don't know if this was a mistake. But clearly, it is an election offence that had an impact (on the results)," he said, adding that similar problems could have also taken place in the other voting streams.

"Just a few streams are enough to sway the results," Rafizi said.

The Form 13 and Form 14 for the said polling stream provided by Rafizi showed that them to be riddled with mistakes, with several cancellations and corrections made on the forms.

The subtraction was also found to be incorrect and there were slots where the numbers were mistakenly added when it should have been subtracted.

Rafizi said existing election laws had put the party's polling agent/counting agents in a dilemma as the returning officer had the power to submit the forms without their signatures.

"If they refuse to sign the form, then it will be worse because the EC can take another blank Form 13 or Form 14 and fill anything it wants," he said.

Rafizi also claimed the result from the disputed stream two for the parliamentary seat of Balik Pulau was mistakenly declared for the state seat of Telok Bahang under the constituency.

'What's the verdict, MACC?'

Also at the press conference was Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin, who called on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to respond to the allegations of widespread vote-buying in Penang.

"We lodged our reports two weeks ago and it is time for MACC to tell the public what action it is going to take," Sim (right) said.

Aside from the daily free food and free entertainment performances in Penang during the campaign period, Sim said, participants were given vouchers where they could claim cash if BN won in their constituency.

The payout was according to odds, where every point is worth RM20 and the highest was in Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's state constituency of Ayer Puteh, which had an odd of 1:20, or a payout of RM400 if BN won.

"We are not suspecting anyone. We leave it to the MACC to investigate but the people must come to us and tell us that there is a 1Malaysia NGO that is doing all this," Sim added.

- Malaysiakini