DAP: Nearly 75,000 voters in Malaysia with ‘problematic’ Sabah ICs

KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 – DAP election strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming revealed today that there are nearly 75,000 potentially dubious voters in electoral rolls nationwide, a number that could tilt the outcome of Election 2013 in favour of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN).

Ong said the number includes those with the “problematic” identification cards highlighted recently during a Sabah RCI hearing, as well as holders of the “Red” and “Green” Sabah ICs, whose voting rights are suspect.

Red IC holders are non-Malaysian permanent residents, while green IC holders are non-Malaysian temporary residents.

“I repeat the call for the National Registration Department (NRD) and the Election Commission (EC) to conduct a joint investigation to determine if these 74,988 voters are genuine voters who have been given their ICs and/or citizenship by following the proper procedures,” Ong said in a statement here.

“I stand ready to present all of my evidence to the Sabah RCI if I am asked to testify,” he added, referring to the ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry probe on allegations that foreigners in Sabah are given citizenships in exchange for their votes.

During a recent RCI hearing, NRD assistant chief in the IC division Sabah and Sarawak Ruslan Alias revealed a list containing 130,459 problematic old IC numbers, divided into three lists called P1, P2 and P3.

P1 contains 51,300 old IC numbers with no information, or partially available information in the NRD. P2 contains 62,500 of these numbers, making the total 113,850. P3 contains 16,669 numbers which have been terminated since 1996.

Ong, who is Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project (MERAP) director, later revealed that the watchdog found that 60,673 of the “problematic” IC holders in lists P1, P2 and P3 are registered as voters in Sabah’s electoral roll in the first quarter of 2012.

He later revealed the presence of 7,475 voters in Sabah with Red and Green ICs.

After expanding his search, Ong said today he discovered that the same problem affects voter rolls outside of Sabah, including in Sarawak and the peninsula.

In his statement today, the DAP strategist said a search on Quarter 1 of the 2012 electoral roll in the peninsula showed that there are 6,840 voters carrying P1 to P3 old IC numbers, as well as Red and Green ICs.

“The state of Selangor tops the list with 2412 such voters (35.4 per cent) followed by Johor with 1190 such voters (17.4 per cent) and KL with 952 (13.9 per cent).

“The evidence thus far reveals that that a total of 74,988 potentially dubious voters – P1 to P3 and ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ old ICs – in Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia. (60, 673 P1 to P3 voters in Sabah, 7,475 ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ voters in Sabah, 6,840 P1 to P3 and ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ voters in the rest of Malaysia),” Ong said.

Despite pressure from rights group and the opposition, EC officials have refused to respond to calls for a voter roll clean-up, arguing that some of the complaints raised were untrue while calling the high percentage of irregularities in the roll “normal”.