EC says DAP out to tarnish their image

EC chairman says the DAP jumped the gun by releasing unofficial figures

KUALA LUMPUR: The Election Commission (EC) is accusing DAP of deliberately releasing unofficial results of the May 31 Teluk Intan by-election as legitimate figures in a bid to attack the EC as fraudulent.

EC chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said DAP jumped the gun by releasing unofficial figures at the close of voting at 5 pm. instead of waiting for the EC to reveal official results at 9.45 pm when all counting had been done and an official winner declared.

Aziz reiterated that the earlier hour-by-hour announcements of votes were unofficial, as the figures did not include postal and early votes.

Neither did the percentage of voter turnout as announced by the EC at the close of voting include specifics such as number of spoilt votes, number of ballots cast nor number of unreturned ballot papers.

According to Aziz, the EC issued 40,668 ballot papers on polling day but only 40,076 votes were recorded for the candidates, leaving a difference of 592 votes, of which 543 were spoilt.

He said the remaining 49 votes were classified as ‘not returned’ with 42 being postal votes and seven being normal votes.

A further breakdown shows that out of 223 ballot papers issued by the EC for postal voting, only 155 were returned. This difference of 68 votes consisted of 26 spoilt and 42 unreturned votes.

In regards to early voting, the EC issued 392 ballot papers of which only 385 were returned with seven spoilt.

Aziz says that DAP strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming who is unhappy over the discrepancies of the total voter turnout versus the number of votes counted, should have immediately seen him for clarification.

As it turned out, no official letter or call was made by any representative in DAP to the EC for an explanation, causing the EC to question if it was DAP’s plan all along to cast doubt on the EC’s role in the Teluk Intan by-election.