54% surge in Sabah electoral roll raises fears of vote padding

 

The number of voters in Sabah is reported to have risen from 1.06 million to 1.64 million since 2018. (Bernama pic)

KOTA KINABALU: A 54% rise in the number of registered voters in Sabah has sparked suspicions of another “Projek IC”, an infamous programme in the 1990s for the systematic granting of citizenship to migrants.

Several political parties have questioned the increase in numbers, particularly because the voter roll in some constituencies is more than 70% higher than in 2018.

Among them was Sabah Barisan Nasional chairman Bung Moktar Radin who on Friday asked the Election Commission to explain the rise in the number of registered voters in Sabah, to 50% more than in 2018.

Bung Moktar said there were concerns about the large increase in the number of Bumiputera Muslim voters in Kadazan Dusun Murut areas, including the Penampang parliamentary constituency.

The most recent electoral roll issued by the Election Commission shows that the number of voters in Sabah has risen to 1.64 million people from 1.06 million just four years ago.

Much of the increase was said to have occurred between 2018 and 2020, two years before the voting age was lowered to 18, and automatic voter registration came into effect.

In Keningau there are more than 30,000 new voters, bringing the total number of registered voters to more than 80,000. In Sepanggar, the electoral roll shows a 72% increase from 62,000 in 2018 to 107,000.

The racial identity of the new voters are also being called into question as many of them registered as Malays, a relatively uncommon practice among Sabah natives.

Sabah is also home to a sizeable Chinese population and a very small Indian community.

16,000 new Indian voters in Kudat

However, in Kudat 16,000 of the 23,000 new voters are Indians prompting Sabah Bersatu leader John Ambrose to question the validity of the voter data, given the small Indian population in the northern Sabah district.

While many of the new voters are young people who benefited from the Undi18 rule, the majority of the new voters are over 30, with some even in their 60s.

Kadazandusun Cultural Association (KDCA) deputy president Clarence B Malakun said the EC and the National Registration Department need to provide an explanation on the matter.

“Sabahans have long been living under the suspicion that non-Sabahans have managed to cast votes. We’ve heard about them getting ICs. We’ve heard about the scandalous Projek IC. And now this,” he said in a statement.

The matter is set to become one of the hottest GE15 issues. Already several parties, including those in government, have called for the electoral roll to be cleaned before the election.

“We need to get to the bottom of this because there is no way we can have a 50% increase in less than five years. Something is wrong,” said STAR president Jeffrey Kitingan. - FMT