Sabah rep slams inept EC, cites irregularities

Polling centres in Kota Kinabalu were almost inaccessible to the old and were located in “senseless and unsafe” places.

KOTA KINABALU: New Luyang state legislative assembly representative Hiew King Cheu has urged voters in the state whose names were found missing from the electoral roll or who were relocated to another location to lodge a complaint with his office.

He said many voters had claimed their names were missing from the electoral roll in the just-concluded 13th general election.

“This is highly illogical and some thing is seriously wrong. How can a person who has been staying in the same place, having the same address and had voted for eight times in the same polling station suddenly find his name missing?” he asked.

He cited the case of a woman who flew back from oversea to vote in Luyang, and found her name not in the electoral roll.

Another voter who only wished to be known as Madam Wong found her name listed in Tenom when she had never been there before.

Stating that his office is currently in the midst of collecting all these complaints as evidence to submit to the Election Commission, he stressed that this should not have happened in the first place.

Hiew believes the problem is not due to computer error but a “deliberate mistake”.

“We want to seek justice and we demand a thorough investigation in the matter. This has caused injustice in the voting and the candidate’s defeat.

“The situation where imported voters are allowed to vote has to be investigated too because there are evidences showing that this kind of incident is true,” he stressed.

He also claimed that there were many cases of voters who found someone had voted on their behalf before they reached the polling station, citing the case of one Mr Chong who had complained to him.

Poor arrangements

When the disgruntled voter lodged a complaint with the election officer and showed the latter that he had no indelible ink on his finger, the election officer refused to accept his explanation because he suspected that he had washed away the indelible ink on his finger.

“How can this happen, and how come the RO (Returning Officer) knew that the indelible ink can be washed? The indelible ink is really a joke and a waste of public funds,” Hiew said.

Hiew also took the EC to task over the poor selection and arrangement of the polling centres in Kota Kinabalu City, citing that the Gaya Teacher Training College polling centre in Luyang was not only senseless, but unsafe.

“This is because the polling centre is situated right at the bottom of the hill, and the voters have to walk down a steep staircase and climb back up to the hill top after making stops at least three times.

“There were a few older people who had to be helped to get down and up the steep staircase. The voters had helped to carry a handicap person down to vote in the centre. A young girl had trouble climbing the steep staircase,” he said.

There were also complaints that the routes to polling centres were jammed with traffic during the peak hours of voting and traffic police were scarce.

“The polling centre in SK Kiansom was the worst because of the narrow road which cannot allow the passage of two cars to pass by. People had to park their cars by the roadside and walk two kilometres to the polling centre,” he said.

Hiew said this was unacceptable as there were also elderly voters and the infirm who had trouble getting to the polling stations.

“The SPR (EC) should review polling centres for future elections,” he stressed.