EC's proposal: DAP reiterates that the EC must
hold all party meeting to seek prior consensus
Press Statement
by Kerk Kim Hock
(Petaling Jaya,
Monday):
Election Commission (EC) Chairman Datuk Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said two
days ago that the Election Commission was seeking powers to transfer voters
from one constituency to another based on address in their identity cards to
overcome the problem of phantom voters and allegations of fraud.
I wish state that DAP MPs are prepared to support any proposal the EC may
make to solve the phantom voter problem. However, I wish to reiterate the
DAP ‘s calls that:
1. The EC must hold an all-party meeting to deliberate and decide on the
effective ways to ensure that the next general election is free, fair and
clean
2.that the EC must totally clean up the electoral rolls before the
dissolution of the present Parliament
The Election Commission Chairman Datuk Abdul Rashid had in fact in September
last year said that the practice of moving voters from one constituency to
another was not something new and all political parties had been doing it
over the last 20 years.
I contacted Datuk Abdul Rashid on 4.9.2002 and he had clarified to me that
he did not say that all political parties were involved. He said that the
shifting of voters had happened over the last 20 years and " may be
political parties are involved".
The Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad said on 3.11.2002 that over the last
30 years, about 2.8 million voters did not vote in the constituency where
they live in and majority of them were transferred by the Opposition
parties, especially PAS, to the villages and fringes of small towns.
It is up to the Election Commission and PAS to reply to the allegations made
by the Prime Minister. However, DAP has many times said that the Barisan
Nasional was involved in creating phantom voters or the import voters, a new
term used by Abdul Rashid.
It has been almost 4 months since Datuk Rashid reveled the practice of
import voters, it is time that he informs Malaysians what has been the
progress so far in his efforts to get rid of such phenomenon.
I wish to stress that as an independent body, the Election Commission must
obtain the prior views and consensus of all political parties when making
any proposal to change the election procedures, rules, regulations and laws.
A democratic election is one where the government is elected on the freely
given consent of the voters. As such, the Election Commission must strive to
ensure that every part of the electoral processes, whether it is the voter
registration exercise, the campaign period and the campaign tactics, must
meet the objective of a free, fair and clean election.
(20/1/2003)
* Kerk Kim Hock,
DAP Secretary General and MP for Kota Melaka
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