EC breaks silence over gate chaining incident in Putrajaya

Chairman says representatives of Pakatan Harapan (PH) knew what they were doing as they had brought along a padlock and chain when they went to the EC office in Putrajaya to submit a memorandum.

KUALA LUMPUR: Election Commission (EC) chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah has finally broken his silence over an incident where protesters chained and padlocked the gates of the EC headquarters in Putrajaya.

He said the EC had lodged a police report on May 23, the same day that representatives of the Women’s and Youth wings of PH “stormed” the EC office to hand over a memorandum.

Hashim said the representatives had shown EC officials photographs of empty houses whose addresses some people had allegedly use to register as voters.

“They came because they wanted to show it (photos) to us, but that is not how our system works, its not enough just to show us at any time (they like),” he said at a press conference after a dialogue session with Selangor community college students.

“As I’ve said before, our system is that, after the registration has been processed, there will be a period for appeal and that is when you make the appeal. Why are you showing it to me?”

He said the protesters had come with padlocks and chains, with the mission of chaining and locking the gate.

The PH group had chained the main gates to the EC headquarters after the EC had reportedly refused to receive their memorandum.

The group had congregated at the EC headquarters in Putrajaya for an hour, trying to submit the memorandum.

Meanwhile, Hashim said the EC’s efforts to get people to register as voters was far more effective than that of any political party.

He said the EC was now focusing on campaigning at universities and colleges, to get students above the age of 21 to register as voters.

So far, at the first stage, he said about a thousand students had already registered. -FMT