Yoon Szu-Mae and Cindy Choo
8:02pm Thu Mar 25th, 2004
The Election Commission - a body tasked with the impartial management of
free and fair general elections - has come under intense fire for a number
of poll irregularities in last Sunday’s general election. Now, there are
more questions it has to answer.
Malaysiakini has been alerted by a number of readers to the high number of
unreturned - or 'missing' - ballot papers as well as other discrepancies in
certain constituencies.
According to them, there is a 10,000-large discrepancy in the number of
ballot papers issued to voters for the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat.
A check with the Election Commission’s (EC) website today showed that the
total number of ballot papers issued for the four state seats under the
Kuala Terengganu parliamentary constituency was 60,948.
Polling procedures require that every voter be issued their state ballot
papers the same time as their parliamentary ballots. This would mean that
all ballots issued for the state seats should tally with the number of
ballots issued for the parliamentary constituency.
However, EC figures show that they issued a total of 71,322 ballots for the
Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat, exceeding the total state ballots by
10,374.
The statistics showed that ballots issued for Wakaf Mempelam (15,399),
Bandar (15,031), Ladang (13,190), and Batu Buruk (17,328) - all state
constituencies under Kuala Terengganu - only add up to 60,948 ballots.
Why the 10,000-odd difference in the number of ballot papers issued for the
parliamentary and state seats?
Three other seats, Setiu (Terengganu), Kemahang and Bachok (Kelantan), also
showed similar discrepancies ranging from 1,444 to 4,843 votes.
BN’s Razali Ismail won the Kuala Terengganu seat by a 1,933 majority against
PAS’ Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi - the contest recorded an astounding voter
turnout of 98.7 percent.
In 1999, the voter turnout for this seat was only 76.5 percent, out of
64,435 total registered voters for the seat.
BN also won the Bandar and Ladang state seats, while PAS took Wakaf Mempelam
and Batu Buruk. All the state seats saw high voter turnouts ranging from
81.52 to 85.92 percent.
Syed Azman, when contacted, told malaysiakini that his party has filed a
formal complaint with the EC over the discrepancy in the number of ballots
for his seat.
"We are in the process of waiting for their answer," said the former Kuala
Terengganu MP, declining to comment further.
Glaring example
Also surprising is the fact that EC recorded an astonishing 10,254
‘unreturned’ ballots for the Kuala Terengganu parliament seat. Unreturned
ballots for the constituency’s state seats only amounted to 124.
Unreturned ballots are defined as ballot papers which were issued to voters
at polling stations but for some reason or the other never made it to the
ballot boxes.
This would mean that for Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat, one out of
every seven ballot papers has gone missing.
The statistics oddly suggest that most of these 10,254 voters managed to
drop their votes into the state ballot boxes while withholding their
parliamentary ballot papers. This despite the presence of EC officials next
to the ballot boxes.
The discrepancy between the number of ballots issued against the number of
ballots received could not be more glaring than for the parliamentary seat
of Kuala Selangor.
EC figures for the constituency show that almost one out of every two voters
collected their ballots at their respective polling centres but failed drop
their votes into the ballot boxes.
The election authorities had issued 31,231 ballot papers for Kuala Selangor
parliament seat but recorded receiving only 13,271 votes. A total of 17, 960
ballots, or 57.5 percent, were recorded as unreturned.
The same occurred for the state seat of Pangkor - which comes under the
Lumut parliamentary constituency in Perak - where one out of every third
voter did not drop their votes into the ballot boxes. A total of 5,108
ballots were recorded as unreturned out of the 6,712 issued.
Why is there such a high number of ballots papers unaccounted for?
The discrepancies in the EC’s figures for total number of ballots issued for
the state and parliamentary seats and the number of unreturned votes
highlights claims by opposition political parties that the 2004 general
election was conducted in a ‘dubious manner.’
Following its unexpected poor performance at the elections, PAS has
questioned the sudden jump in voter turnout in Terengganu, and the absence
of registered voters from the electoral roll.
The party on Sunday was routed by the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition,
losing Terengganu and coming close to being defeated in neighbouring
Kelantan as well.
Yesterday, it moved to reject poll results, calling instead for a royal
commission to probe into complaints of poll irregularities. Fellow
opposition party, Keadilan, which also suffered big losses at the polls,
followed suit.
Chaos on polling day
Chaos erupted in various constituencies on polling day when voters alleged
that their names were not on the electoral roll, despite having voted in
that constituency in the past.
Nowhere was this more stark than in Gombak, Selangor, where polling agents
alleged that "hundreds" of names were missing from the roll, and EC officers
nowhere to be found.
Scores of others were caught out when they found that while their names were
on the roll, they still could not vote as the EC failed to assign them to
voting channels, a procedure ensuring voters can obtain a ballot at their
polling stations.
Some also alleged that they had been transferred, without their knowledge,
to other constituencies and even other states. Malaysiakini managed to
independently verify some of these complaints.
And while both BN and the opposition parties have criticised the conduct of
the 2004 general election, PAS, Keadilan and DAP had gone one step further
in calling for the resignation of EC chief Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, as a
first step in the direction of correcting the electoral fiasco.
Yesterday, Abdul Rashid conceded to the electoral foul ups and himself
called for an independent probe, but said he would not step down unless the
problems can be traced back to his incompetence.
___________________________
Terbitan : 26 Mac 2004
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