A sea of crowd at the DAP ceramah in BDC.
KUCHING: State DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen has called on Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem to explain on why he allows a large number of army personnel and their spouses from Peninsular Malaysia to vote in this state election.
He (Adenan) keeps saying ‘let Sarawakians decide the Sarawak state election’. If this was the case, I would call upon him to ban army personnel and their spouses (from Peninsular Malaysia) from casting their votes in this election.
“If he (Adenan) holds firm belief that the Sarawak state election should be decided by Sarawakians, why did he allow not only army personnel, but also their spouses to vote in this election?
“There are 25,000 army personnel and their spouses who will be voting (on May 7). The majority of them are from Peninsular Malaysia,” he told reporters here yesterday.
Chong, who aims to retain Kota Sentosa for DAP, said Adenan was talking about Sarawakians deciding the state government and using this as a reason to prohibit opposition leaders from entering Sarawak to speak at ‘ceramah’ (speech rallies) here.
However, he said there appeared to be a double-standard when Adenan was allowing army personnel and their spouses from the peninsula to vote in this election.
“This also indicates that the BN (Barisan Nasional) is now worried.”
When asked to show evidence about the 25,000 voters comprising army personnel and their spouses, he replied: “Check with EC (Election Commission). They have the figures.”
He also said of the mentioned 25,000, 3,300 would be voting in Kota Sentosa and 7,000, in Stakan.
Attempts to get comments from state EC director Datu Takun Sunggah on the issue failed.