DAP claims Rasah postal voters using army spouses’ IC numbers
Malaysian Insider
Rasah MP Anthony Loke told reporters today that 19 wives and two husbands registered at the army camp in his constituency had IC numbers which corresponded to their spouses birthdates and also ended with digits denoting the wrong gender.
(The National Registration Department (NRD) issues IC numbers ending with odd numbers for males and even numbers for females.)
“We do not even know whether the spouses really exist,” the DAP youth chief said.
Loke (picture) said that he suspected that the IC numbers belonged to the army officers, who are themselves registered at the camp under their own military ICs, allowing someone to double vote.
“These IC numbers do not belong to the spouse of the army personnel. So the spouse’s own IC numbers can still be registered elsewhere and someone can vote twice. It doesn’t matter who. The issue is an extra vote can be made,” he added.
He said that the Election Commission (EC) ruling last year that spouses can be registered as postal voters meant that all constituencies could potentially see postal votes doubling.
“This is not confined to my constituency. We have evidence in Rasah but also know it happens in Rembau, (Umno Youth chief) Khairy Jamaluddin’s constituency which we will scan through next,” he added.
In the second quarter of this year alone, Loke said that 269 spouses have been added in his constituency where there were over 2,000 army postal voters for Election 2008.
Loke also found a Yuzina Nodin married to another female named Yuniza Nodin who both had the same birthdate.
“I’m not sure whether the Malaysian army has allowed same sex marriage,” he joked.
Of the 22 examples he produced today, only two did not have identical birthdates but these cases had the month and dates reversed (i.e., June 2 changed to February 6) while the year remained the same.
He said that postal votes remain a questionable practice as polling agents could not enter army camps when votes are cast, meaning that “each registered postal voter means a postal ballot is produced. Who uses it, nobody can check.”
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has increased the pressure on the Najib administration to implement electoral reforms since the July 9 Bersih rally which saw tens of thousands pouring into the capital in support of free and fair elections despite warnings of police action which eventually led to nearly 1,700 arrests.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak had announced last month a parliamentary select committee to improve the electoral system but the federal opposition has insisted that the prime minister guarantee that the panel’s findings be implemented before a general election expected within the year.
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