'BN's petitions give EC more reasons to resign'

BN's move to file some 21 election petitions add to the reasons why the Election Commission (EC) should resign, said PKR vice-president Tian Chua.

"Pakatan Rakyat and thousands of rakyat have been protesting the election results for a good month now...

"Recently, we were joined in by the ruling party BN which disagrees with the election results in quite a few constituencies as well.

"What more proof does the EC chairperson need? Resign now," he said in a press statement today.

He was responding to EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof's (left) statement yesterday, saying that the commission's members will not resign just because there were some who disagreed with the election results.

BN's petitions, he said, further solidified the fact that the electorlal entity had "failed miserably" in upholding free and fair elections.

Chua, who is also Batu MP, said the EC had further misled the rakyat by claiming that the failure of the indelible ink during the  polls was due to the Health Ministry advising that the silver nitrate content in the ink cannot exceed one percent.

'EC has misled the rakyat'
"Almost a week ago, Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam publicly made a statement that the EC did not get any consultation from Health Ministry in regards to the indelible ink.

"Otherwise, the ministry would have prepared a detailed report on the usage of the ink for the EC.

"Again, clearly the EC chairperson has misled the rakyat when he told us that the reason for the low one percent silver nitrate in the ink was due to warnings from (the) Health Ministry," Chua said.

The EC had blamed the insufficient silver nitrate content after it received flak when the indelible ink used to mark voters' fingers on polling day to prevent double voting could be washed away.

The EC has insisted that this was the Health Ministry's advice, despite the latter denying ever being consulted on the matter.