By Hamidah Atan (NST)
2008/08/26
PUTRAJAYA: The electoral roll for the Permatang Pauh by-election is clean and its authenticity has been verified by the Election Commission. Commission deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said the allegation by Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s Fuziah Salleh that 949 names had gone missing from the electoral roll, which was gazetted on July 31, was not true.
“The electoral roll has gone through the process of cleansing and we have taken out the names of those who were confirmed dead or wanted to change their addresses to other constituencies,” he said.
“The names were transferred based on requests by voters themselves or the dead persons’ next of kin.
“This allegation is something that we are very familiar with. Whenever there is an election, there will be someone pointing fingers at us, trying to create doubts on the authenticity of the electoral roll. I do not know the figures they are talking about but bring us the proof if there is any.”
Fuziah, the PKR election committee deputy director, had claimed that the names were nowhere to be found on the updated list issued by the commission.
She had also said that most of the missing names were those of PKR’s supporters.
She also claimed 83 voters were found to have similar addresses, adding that PKR believed they were phantom voters.
“I want to stress here that the roll has been processed according to the law. By making the allegation to the media, I think this is not fair to the EC.
“We have been working hard to process the electoral roll. Everybody should trust us and our independence as an election commission, and please don’t question the authenticity of the roll.”
Wan Ahmad also said voters would have written in with their objections when the roll was displayed.
“The roll had been put up for display for public objections before it was verified. It is a clean roll consisting of the names of all registered voters in the parliamentary constituency.
“As far as the commission is concerned, there were no such complaints. This is the electoral roll that we will use for the Permatang Pauh by-election.”