State EC chief: No basis to PKR’s allegation

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BINTULU: State Election Commission (EC) director Datu Takun @ Takon Sunggah has refuted the allegation made by Baru Bian of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) that only 10 per cent of its new voter’s registration forms were approved.

“From the EC record, PKR submitted 2,206 registration forms between January and June 2010. PKR did not sent in any form in December 2009.

“Out of the 2,206 voter’s registration forms submitted, 1,774 forms were processed, approved and accepted. Some 432 forms were rejected and cannot be processed due to various reasons,” he said.

Takun, in a statement to The Borneo Post in response to Baru’s claim yesterday, said based on the facts above, 80.4 per cent of the forms submitted by PKR were approved and only 19.6 per cent were rejected.

“To say that only 10 per cent were approved is unacceptable,” he stressed.

Elaborating on the majority of the forms which were rejected, Takun said 127 of the applicants were already registered voters at the same address; the addresses of 98 applicants were different from those in their identity cards; 28 applicants were below 21 years old; 18 applicants had no record of their citizenship and five applicants were holding ‘temporary resident’ status.

Meanwhile, state DAP secretary Chong Chieng Jen, in a statement published in Free Malaysia Today news portal recently, was quoted as saying that the EC was afraid of getting young or new voters because the majority of them tended to lean towards the opposition.

“The new voters give the government an element of uncertainty,” Chong, who is also the Bandar Kuching MP, was quoted as saying.

Takun remarked that Chong’ statement was unacceptable because the EC would process all registration forms and approve them if they met all stipulated criteria.

“EC welcomes all Malaysian citizens who has attained the age of 21 years to be registered as voters. As to who they will vote for is none of the EC’s concerns.

“I would also want to clarify one other point. Chong claimed that the registration forms were rejected because they omitted the full-stop for the short form of the number for their home address. I have no records of such forms being rejected. I hope Mr Chong can furnish me with such forms,” he said.

He stressed that the EC would not simply reject registration forms on technical grounds.

“In fact there are cases where registration forms which are not duly signed by the witness are not rejected straight away. The EC staff will call the registration agents from the party to sign as witness so that EC can process the forms.

“So, I hope Baru Bian and Chong Chieng Jen can clarify with the EC in future on the registration of voters. We are willing to assist any political parties on the voter’s registration exercise,” he said.