Proof of Electoral Fraud Cannot Be Ignored

Proof of Electoral Fraud Cannot Be Ignored

Repeated denials of electoral fraud by the leadership of the Elections Commission threaten to plunge Malaysia’s already tarnished credibility into further disrepute.

Sham Democracy summarizes how gerrymandering of voting constituencies, phantom voters, money politics, limited access to the media, and other factors have created an unfair electoral landscape in Malaysia in which the opposition is severely disadvantaged.

Specific examples include:

* In 1999, the EC claimed it “did not have enough time” to process voter registration cards from May in time for the November elections; processing generally takes about three months. This was clearly a premeditated move to deny as many as 680,000 individuals that registered as new voters in the aftermath of the Reformasi movement.

* In 2004, phantom polling booths were discovered. In Gombak, 2 polling districts were found to have an identical name (Kemensah, 098/18/04) but yielded 2 different results.

* In 2004, records show that Ali bin Omar, the deceased father of a prominent KeADILan leader, saw fit to rise from the dead, make his way to the polling station, and cast a vote not for his son’s party, but for the Barisan Nasional candidate.

* In 2004, 37.6% voters in the constituency of Lembah Pantai were found to have untraceable addresses. According to the electoral roll, one modest, zinc roofed sundry shop in Kampung Kerinchi housed a total of 141 voters.

* In the 2007 Ijok by-election, a shocking 142 unreturned ballots from Polling Booth 4 of Pekan Berjuntai Bestari Utara electoral district points to the practice where voters would take out empty ballots and sell them to agents who would then mark them, and give them to other voters who would cast the marked ballot, bring out their empty ballot, and repeat the process.

* In October 2007, the constituency of Ipoh Timur, an opposition stronghold, was found to have registered an extraordinary 8,463 new voters in only three months. The constituency originally comprised some 48,000 voters and was won with a majority of 9,774 votes.

In the aftermath of the Bersih rally of November 10, where 100,000 Malaysians joined together to call for free and fair elections, it is the height of arrogance that this government would seek to perpetuate the status quo.

We demand a full audit of the Election Commission’s policies and procedures so that they meet accepted international standards of transparency and accountability before the next General Election takes place in Malaysia.

KeADILan will continue to work with civil society and opposition parties to ensure that the fundamental right of every human being to living under a government of his or her choosing will be upheld in Malaysia.

ANWAR IBRAHIM