Include only genuine Sabahans in electoral roll, PBS tells EC

 

Parti Bersatu Sabah president Maximus Ongkili (sixth from left) chairing the party’s Supreme Council meeting at its headquarters in Penampang today. (PBS pic)

KOTA KINABALU: The Election Commission (EC) must give its assurance to Sabah MPs and assemblymen that only genuine Sabahans are included in the state electoral rolls, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) president Maximus Ongkili said.

He said the party supported Undi18, but was against the automatic voter registration.

The Kota Marudu MP added that a unanimous decision was reached at the PBS Supreme Council meeting today on the necessity for the EC to hold a briefing for all Sabah MPs and assemblymen.

“Considering Sabah’s polluted electoral roll as proven in the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on illegal immigrants here, while we welcome the registration of 18-year-olds as voters, we strongly disagree that they should be registered automatically,” he said in a statement here.

“As such, we want the EC to brief all elected representatives on the precautionary measures it will take to ensure that only genuine Sabahans are registered as voters.”

Law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar had previously told the Dewan Rakyat that the registration of 18-year-olds as voters and automatic voter registration were expected to be implemented by the end of the year.

Wan Junaidi said the EC was still identifying and looking for solutions for Undi18 and for automatic voter registration to be implemented.

“The EC is committed to implementing them, latest by Dec 31, 2021,” he said.

On the “polluted” electoral roll in Sabah, Ongkili said there is evidence, as stated in the RCI report, of the existence of phantom voters.

“Most of the state’s phantom voters hold genuine identification cards but had obtained them through dubious means.

“It is important to clean our electoral roll of these phantom voters. As much as we want more young voters to become decision makers, we do not want the numbers to breed unhealthily,” he added.

According to Ongkili, who is the Sabah and Sarawak affairs minister, PBS had also been trying to secure appointments to discuss the matter further with the federal and state EC, but no dates had been given as yet.

“We hope the EC will call for the briefing soon and provide us with their assurance that the electoral roll is cleaned up before the next election,” he said. - FMT