KOTA KINABALU: A Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Supreme Council member has urged the Sabah Election Commission (EC) to give a definitive deadline on the verification of the status of some 3,711 centenarians who are registered voters in the state.
This is to ascertain as to whether the so-called centenarians are still “active”, said Dr Roland Chia, who is also PKR Sabah secretary.
He said that during the Batu Sapi by-election in October 2010, the number of centenarians were 156 and as of today the centenarians still stand with more than 156.
“After one year has lapsed, there seemed to be no action taken by the Election Commission. They should not be just paying lip services, instead they should set a deadline as to the verification of centenarians.”
He added that from their records, as of to date, the top seven parliamentary areas in Sabah with centenarian voters are as follows: Tawau (264), Kudat (246), Kota Kinabalu (231), Silam (224), 221 (Semporna), 203 (Tuaran) and 198 (Sandakan).
The remaining 2,124 centenarian voters are registered in the remaining 18 parliamentary areas in Sabah.
“We are not asking the State EC to strike out overnight, but the Batu Sapi electoral roll since September 2010 – about a year ago has yet to be verified and corrected is not a good excuse for not setting a deadline to verify the centenarian voters.”
Dr Roland said that the party had brought the matter up with the state EC for verification but the officials claimed that they could not do anything unless the family members of the registered voters come forward to rectify the matter. “PKR Sabah urges expediency on the part of the State Election Commission.”