|
|
Extracted from Malaysiakini
Mafrel: Cop
voted twice
May
18,
An
independent election observer today revealed its first ‘physical evidence’ of
irregularities in the postal balloting for the
Its
chairperson Abdul
The policeman claimed that he had received two ballot
papers from the Election Commission (EC).
“The complainant provided us with two envelopes which
contained the ballot papers. Both were addressed to him complete with his
police identification number. One was sent to the central police station in
Kuching while the other was sent to the Simunjan district police headquarters.
“The first ballot paper was for the Padungan seat while
the second was for the Simunjan seat,” Malek told a press conference in
Kuching.
According to him, the policeman had asked not to be
identified. “I respect his wishes and will not reveal his identity. But I will
do so if I am challenged by the EC?” he said.
“Right now, postal balloting is done without any
independent observers representing the political parties contesting. We are
also concerned with the pressure on security personnel who are forced to cast
their postal ballots before their camp commandant.
“Postal voting process involving the spouses of security
personnel has also been questioned,” he added.
Last Sunday, the EC issued the ballot papers for the
14,727 postal voters, comprising security forces personnel and
Out of the total, 7,574 ballot papers were for military
personnel, 7,120 for the police and 33 for the other electors. All the postal
votes have to be returned before
‘Vote buying’
At the press conference, Malek also exposed an alleged
‘vote buying’ incident involving Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters.
He said this was reported by Peter Rosen Ranuk, a Bidayuh
farmer from Kampung Tebewang Sauk in Bau. He claimed that he saw BN supporters
giving money to 12 voters in his village.
He
said Peter had lodged a police report on May 16 regarding the matter.
Malek urged the authorities to start a thorough
investigation and disclosed that Mafrel will also file a report with the
Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) on the matter tomorrow.
He also warned the EC against setting-up new polling
centres which have not been gazetted as required under sub-regulation 11(5) of
the Election (conduct of election) Regulation 1981
In a related development, Mafrel said it is worried that
newly announced voting centres in Sibu would confuse voters as the announcement
was made just three days ahead of polling day
Mafrel Sibu co-ordinator Ong Boon Keong said he was
disappointed with EC secretary and chief registrar of electorate Kamaruzaman
Mohd Noor’s statement that voters should check their voting stations through
SMS and the internet to avoid confusion.
“This is because access to SMS and internet is very
limited to the majority of voters in
Ong met Kamaruzaman in Sibu yesterday over the matter
following reports that six polling stations would be added to the Pelawan state
constituency.
According to him, the EC secretary was surprised when told
of the additional voting centres and claimed to have no knowledge about this.