GE14 will be the dirtiest, says Nurul Izzah

PKR vice-president claims Election Commission’s failure to manage properly the voter objection process will deny many voters the right to vote.

SHAH ALAM: The next general election (GE14) will be the dirtiest in Malaysian history because of the Election Commission’s (EC) failure to properly manage the voter objection process which will deprive many voters of their right to vote, says Nurul Izzah Anwar.

The PKR vice-president said the objection process has forced affected voters to wait up to six months before having their names included in the electoral rolls.

“Even then, there is no guarantee, if the affected voters do not show up to challenge any objection lodged against them,” she added.

The process works this way: When an objection is lodged against a voter, the EC will issue a letter requiring the voter to turn up for a hearing to argue their case for inclusion in the rolls. If the voter fails to make an appearance, then their name is struck off the register.

Klang MP Charles Santiago yesterday condemned the process as a bane for opposition parties to get more voters onto the electoral rolls.

He said that out of 274 registered voters in two parliamentary constituencies in Selangor, who had objections lodged against them, only about a quarter of them turned up yesterday to challenge the objections.

Santiago also accused Umno of abusing the system to get registered names struck off the rolls in opposition-held constituencies.

“What worries me is that GE14 will be the dirtiest and the most manipulated general election in the history of Malaysia,” Nurul Izzah said.

“The issue here is not about correcting the bureaucracy but about the EC denying the right of Malaysians to vote by making it difficult for them to vote,” she told a media conference at the Selangor EC office here today.

Nurul Izzah was at the EC office together with Pakatan Harapan youth leaders to hand over a protest memorandum to Selangor EC deputy director Kamarul Azman Ahmad Sabri, for not distributing the first quarter of the Supplementary Electoral Roll to political parties.

On another matter, Nurul Izzah said 140 designs for a proposed Pakatan Harapan common logo had been received from the public.

The logo design was made open to the public after the initial internally-produced designs were criticised as uninspiring.

“We welcome the participation of the general community and the final logo will be shortlisted by the leadership,” she said. -FMT