PM using '40,000 Bangladeshi voters' issue as red herring

Prime Minister Najib Razak's repeated denials that 40,000 Bangladeshis had voted in the 13th general election is but a red herring to evade answering other allegations of electoral fraud, said Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan.

"I am very suspicious of why they are over-playing this one issue. I think is it a red herring so that they don't have to answer all other allegations of electoral fraud which are backed by evidence," she said when contacted by Malaysiakini today.

Ambiga is responding to Najib's interview on CNN, which was published online on Oct 31, where he was asked to comment on "allegations of fraud, buying votes, double-voting, phantom voters, (and) issues of gerrymandering".

Najib replied that the allegations are "by and large... totally unfounded", and then pointed to the allegation that 40,000 Bangladeshis were ferried in to vote as an example, stressing that the allegation was never proven.

This issue was raised soon after the May general election to ridicule Pakatan Rakyat as well as to discredit allegations of electoral fraud, and it was repeated several times over the past week - during Najib's Budget speech on Oct 25, while opening the Gerakan National Delegates' Conference on Oct 26, and most recently, the CNN interview.

"He didn't answer any other allegations of fraud that (CNN interviewer Christiane Amanpour) mentioned, like vote buying and gerrymandering," Ambiga noted.

When asked for examples of allegations that should be answered, she pointed to the testimonies and evidence submitted to the Bersih People's Tribunal, which was held in September.

These include cases where the indelible ink was easily removed, irregularities in the electoral roll, unequal access to media, and cases where the number of ballots exceeded the number of voters, among others.

"They have created this red herring and they keep repeating it, but they will not talk about the other allegations."

Chartered flights

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim had claimed on May 3 - two days before polling day - that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has chartered flights for an estimated 40,500 ‘dubious voters' with foreign-sounding names from East Malaysia to vote in the election in Peninsular Malaysia.

The PMO and the implicated airline were quick to deny the claims. And while Anwar did not specify the supposed nationality of the dubious voters, the blame quickly fell on Bangladeshi nationals - a major exporter of foreign labour to Malaysia.

This led to a press conference by the Bangladeshi High Commission on June 3.

"The propaganda of Bangladeshi citizens voting in the 13th general election, I am sure, is nothing but mere fabrication by some interest groups and a sheer misrepresentation of facts," said High Commissioner AKM Atiqur Rahman, who described the allegation as "absurd".