NST: 29 Feb, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR: An email is misleading the public into believing that certain parties are using phantom voters to help them win the election, Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said yesterday. The email, which is widely distributed, contains names of people born before 1900 but still registered as voters.
A check by the New Straits Times with the Election Commission’s website confirmed the five mentioned in the email were still registered as voters.
Rashid said the commission had sent staff out to check on whether the five people were still alive.
He said the issue was being politicised by some parties. He said the five were a fraction of the over-8,000 dead whose status had not been updated by the National Registration Department.
He added that once a person registered as a voter, he or she is registered for life. The commission has no power to remove the names just because they are over 100 years old.
“People should not mistrust the EC. The people who read this email may make their own conclusions. But there is really no hanky panky involved,” he added.