DAP: Parliament hansard rejected as 'unbelievable' by EC registrar

A registrar for the Election Commission (EC) had rejected the Parliament hansard as evidence, saying it could not be believed, a DAP member claims.

DAP legal bureau secretary Michelle Ng Mei Sze said the hansard had been brought by an applicant before the EC registrar earlier this month to object to the registrations of new army voters in the Segamat constituency.

"(But the) applicant was told by the registrar that the hansard, which was produced by the said applicant 'cannot be believed'.

"This hansard (contains) the part of the parliamentary proceedings where the deputy defence minister admitted that the building of the Segamat (army) camp has not been completed," Ng said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

This is believed to be in regards to Deputy Defence Minister Mohd Johari Baharum (photo) who on Nov 28, defended the existence of 1,051 army voters at the Segamat camp, which is still under construction.

The Parliament hansard is an official document produced by Parliament as a record of Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara proceedings.

Ng added that after the hansard was rejected, the EC registrar told the applicant to bring the deputy minister in as a witness if his testimony was to be used to object to the registration of the new army voters in Segamat.

However, the EC registrar refused to adjourn the proceedings in order for the applicant to summon the deputy minister.

This case, said Ng, was one of several instances where electoral roll objection hearings between Dec 4 and 10 had been unfairly handled by the EC.

She said compared to the objecting applicant, the EC registrar had adjourned proceedings to allow an army captain to secure a full list of names of 20 voters being objected to.

Applicants denied BM translators

Meanwhile, other applicants who were not well versed in Bahasa Malaysia, allegedly had their requests for translators rejected.

"They were made to take oaths in the Malay language by repeating after an officer from the EC, despite not understanding what was being said.

"The absence of a translator also meant that some of the applicants could not understand what was happening in the objection hearings, and could not communicate their reasons for objection," Ng said.

She said all objections made by the 48 applicants in Segamat were rejected.

The opposition claims that the government is building army camps nationwide in order to bolster their vote counts in the upcoming 14th general election.

The government denies these allegations.- Mkini