‘Abolish 9A′ campaign launched

Online campaign by Bersih and Pakatan is to pressure the government to allow the electoral roll to be scrutinised by the courts

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Rakyat with the support of Bersih chairperson, S Ambiga, have launched a campaign to pressure the government to allow the Court to scrutinise the ‘dirty’ electoral roll.

Previous efforts to file a court case compelling the Election Commission (EC) to clean up the electoral roll were rebuffed on the grounds that it violates Section 9A of the Elections Act 1958.

Section 9A states: “After an electoral roll has been certified… (and) published in the gazette… the electoral roll shall be deemed to be final and binding and shall not be questioned or appealed against in, or reviewed, quashed or set aside by any court.”

This means that once an electoral roll is gazetted, it cannot be challenged in court, DAP leader Charles Santiago said today at a joint press conference with Ambiga, Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang, and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng at the Parliament lobby.

“Today, my office and I will be launching the ‘Mansuhkan 9A’ (Abolish 9A) campaign. This campaign aims to gather public support for the abolishment of Section 9A of the Election Act 1958,” said the Klang MP.

“The problem we have with 9A is that the EC is the sole custodian of the electoral roll,” said Ambiga, adding that if the EC wanted transparency, it would not need Section 9A to protect the electoral roll from court scrutiny.

Santiago said Section 9A remained a key obstacle to a free and fair election because it prevented anyone from questioning the integrity of the electoral roll, despite evidence.

He claimed that Section 9A was introduced to help BN maintain its “phantom voters”, citing as proof the fact that it was introduced only after the 2001 Likas by-election case.

“The Kota Kinabalu High Court had found the Likas constituency electoral roll to be flawed, as it contains phantom voters, and hence declared the 1999 constituency polls null and void,” he said.

He urged the public to unite and exert pressure on the government by signing the “Mansuhkan 9A” campaign petition, accessible at www.mansuhkan9A.com.

“We want the government to repeal Section 9A immediately and return the power to the judiciary. Anything short of an abolishment will further degrade the legitimacy of the Barisan Nasional government,” said Santiago.