Objectors must be present, says Ong criticising EC process

Objection filed against new voters are invalid if the complainants are not present during hearing, says Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming.

SHAH ALAM: The Election Commission (EC) officer should dismiss objections filed against new voters if the complainants are not present during the public hearing, says DAP’s Ong Kian Ming.

“The EC should not conduct a public hearing if the objectors are not present themselves,” Ong said after visiting the EC’s Selangor branch to observe the objections process today.

Ong stated that the EC officer refused to clarify as to why the objectors were not present during the hearing.

One of the new voters, Tan Wei Hong from Tanjung Karang, stated that the hearing was unfair because the person who objected was not present during the hearing.

Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming, holding the EC rules and regulations.

“The person who objected was Mohd Yusop Omar and he didn’t come for the hearing today. This is very unfair and against the regulation,” Tan said.

Tan who came for the hearing said that he received a letter from the EC stating that his complainant raised an issue about his registration form as well as his parliamentary constituency.

Ong also questioned the EC officer for stopping him from taking pictures of the new voters outside the hearing room.

He said that according to the EC’s public hearing regulations, there was no provision to deny him the right to take pictures.

However, after discussing it with the EC officer, the officer rejected Ong’s explanation because the regulations were not in Bahasa Malaysia (BM).

“I printed out the rules and regulation from their website and when I presented it to them, they rejected my explanation because it was in English instead of BM,” he added.

The Serdang MP also said that there were less than 50% who came for the hearing today and those affected by the objections were newly-registered voters in the parliamentary constituencies of Hulu Selangor, Kuala Selangor, Selayang and Tanjung Karang.

Today, newly-registered voters who were summoned by the EC, attended a hearing after their registrations were objected to as their home addresses were called into question.

Many of them claimed that they were puzzled as to why their home addresses were brought into question. -FMT