PKR gets cracking in Lembah Pantai

PETALING JAYA: PKR has started door-to-door checks in the Lembah Pantai constituency to weed out phantom voters in what has been called the hottest election battleground in Kuala Lumpur.

Speaking to FMT, PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil alleged that a large number of voters had been moved into low-cost flats in the constituency since 2016.

“These people could have been moved under some political operation,” he told FMT. “We have deployed grassroots activists and local contacts to do door-to-door checks in these areas and are putting in place certain measures to deal with phantom voters.”

The constituency covers Kampung Sentosa, Bangsar, Travers, Brickfields, Pantai Dalam, Kampung Bahagia, Kampung Bohol and parts of Petaling and Petaling Selatan.

Questions have been raised about the integrity of the Lembah Pantai electoral roll since 2008, when PKR’s Nurul Izzah Anwar wrested the seat from Wanita Umno leader Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

It has been alleged, for instance, that many listed voters have dubious or incomplete addresses.

A major issue is the movement of postal voters to the constituency. Nurul Izzah recently questioned the need to transfer nearly 7,000 postal voters from the Bukit Aman police headquarters to Lembah Pantai.

Her concern is understandable because postal voters traditionally favour Barisan Nasional. Furthermore, she won the seat with a slim majority in the 2013 election, beating BN’s Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin by only 1,874 votes. The number of valid votes in the constituency was 60,336.

There has been speculation that Nurul Izzah may choose to contest in Permatang Pauh instead in the coming general election. The seat is currently held by her mother, PKR president Wan Azizah Ismail, who may be heading to Johor.

Constitutional expert Abdul Aziz Bari, a DAP member, said it might be wise for Nurul Izzah to move to another constituency.

“There have been claims of tricks used in Lembah Pantai, such as postal votes and blackouts in the midst of vote counting,” he said.

There has been speculation that PKR will choose Fahmi for Lembah Pantai in the coming election. If so, he will be going against the well-oiled election machinery of Raja Nong Chik, who is seen as a person with strong grassroots support. -FMT