EC: Electoral roll used in Selangor delimitation not invalid

The Election Commission (EC) today denied that the electoral roll used in the 2016 delimitation exercise in Selangor was invalid.

"The electoral roll is not defective for the want of the address-less 136,272 voters in Selangor."

Senior federal counsel Amarjeet Singh, representing the EC, said this in his submissions in the hearing of the Selangor government's challenge against the EC over the delimitation exercise in the state.

The Selangor government had argued that the EC had used a defective electoral roll for the delimitation exercise as the 136,272 voters in Selangor - as shown on the electoral roll - did not have their corresponding addresses entered on the roll.

Amarjeet, however, explained that the missing addresses arose when the EC carried out a migration exercise of information of registered voters from the manual system to a computerised system in 2002.

"The fact that such a migration exercise took place was confirmed by the person in charge of the said exercise (former EC chairperson) Abdul Rashid (Abdul Rahman)," said Amarjeet.

He also noted that Rashid (photo) had stated that only the locality of voters as of 2002 was retained in the migration exercise.

The Selangor government's ground, therefore, was based on presumptions and not hard evidence, Amarjeet said.

"There is no evidence to show that the EC arbitrarily assigned voters without addresses to localities. The ground raised by the applicant is without merit."

Meanwhile, replying to the Selangor government which had submitted that the EC from time to time carries out alterations of polling district boundaries, Amarjeet said that a locality is not altered in the situation of a change in the boundary of polling districts.

"The whole locality would either be inside or outside the altered boundary. No issue of addresses of voters arises in this situation."

On the other matter which the Selangor government had submitted that the EC's proposed recommendations had violated Article 113(2) that read with Section 2(c) and Section 2(d) of the13th Schedule of Federal Constitution as they resulted in constituencies that are malapportioned or gerrymandered, Amarjeet submitted that the subject matter of review does not fall within Order 53 Rule 2(4) of the Rules of Court.

"The proposed recommendations are not amenable to judicial review.

"The proper forum for the objections that constituencies are malapportioned or gerrymandered for violating paragraphs (c) and (d) of Section 2 are at local inquiries."

Following submissions by the EC today, Justice Azizul Azmi Adnan fixed Oct 24 for the Selangor government to respond to the submissions.

The Selangor government had partially won their discovery application regarding the 136,272 voters in the state after the High Court ordered the EC to furnish the addresses and localities of the voters in question.

This decision, however, was overturned by the Court of Appeal when it allowed the EC's appeal over the discovery application after they claimed the locality records for 1994 and 2003 were destroyed. This was affirmed by the Federal Court.

Rashid, however, denied that there was any destruction of the addresses and locality names of voters during his tenure.-Mkini