Human rights movement Pusat Komunikasi Masyarakat (Komas) has revealed 194 cases of electoral irregularities, the most problematic being 84 cases where voters share the same old identification card (IC) numbers.
Komas’ citizenship and voter education programme coordinator Arul Prakkash said that the voters who shared the same old IC numbers have different names and different MyKad numbers.
Arul pointed out that such was the problem in the registration of Miju Ojing and Bok Chik Maarif from Negri Sembilan, where both their old IC numbers were stated as 2008042.
The watchdog, through its election monitoring project, Jom Pantau, had sieved through more than 500 complaints from the 1,875 reports submitted since February in coming out with the 194.
Similarly, two senior voters from Johor - Siti Saripan and Ang Lai Wang @ Low Lai Wa - were listed as to having the same 3224270 IC number, although their MyKad numbers vary.
In another category, the NGO, which has been involved in voters education programmes since the 1990s, said that 38 voters were found to have the same name and dates of birth. However the last six digits in their MyKads and their voting constituencies were different.
Arul said that following verification on the Election Commission’s (EC) website, there are two 55-year-old Salamah Karim, one with MyKad no 570519-10-6034 and votes in parliamentary constituency of Tanjong Karang, while the other has MyKad no 570519-10-6050 and votes in Sabak Bernam.
One strange irregularity was the case of a teacher and her spouse who were turned into postal voters without their knowledge.
“We located the couple upon receiving a complaint. They said that this was done several years ago when they had moved to China for business purposes.
“But the teacher, who was still in the civil service, had never applied to become a postal voter,” said Arul.
He noted that it is an election offence to change the voting status without the consent of the individual.
It is even more a hassle for the couple who now live in Sibu, Sarawak as the nearest EC office is 400km away, said Arul.
“We also found that an unregistered voter made an appearance in the electoral roll on May 9. The complainant reported that she found her name registered in the Butterworth parliamentary (constituency), but upon checking again the following day EC’s record showed that it had been changed to Klang,” said Arul.
According to Arul, the contradictory data and complaints were mostly from civil society groups and other electoral reform movements, and only 20 percent were from individuals.
‘EC’s job to clear the air’
Stressing that it is the EC’s job to clear the air on the discrepancies, Arul said that they have uploaded the verified problems on their website and forwarded the complaints to the relevant authority.
Arul sad Komas has also written to the EC seeking for a meeting and applied to gain official recognition to monitor the coming polls.
Besides checking on electoral irregularities, Komas also keeps tabs on reports pertaining to other election offences.
“We want emphasise that someone is watching, and they better watch out,” joked Arul.