EC chairman Abdul Rashid should step down to bear full
responsibility for the worst ever election fiasco without waiting for
the royal commission findings
Press Statement
by Ronnie
Liu Tian Khiew
(PEtaling Jaya,
Thursday):
While I agree with the setting up of a royal commission to get
to the bottom of the fiasco of the worst ever general election process on 21
March 2004, Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman should step down as the
chairman of the Election Commission immediately for a number of unacceptable
flaws and wrongdoings on the part of his office:
1. After getting the political parties to agree with doing away with
the "pondok panas" and canvassing of votes, he should not have allowed the
ruling parties to set up "pejabat party" at the eleventh hour, which were
served as good as "pondok panas" for the ruling parties. This turnabout has
left the relatively less resourceful opposition parties totally unguarded
and failed to set up pejabat parti in time. As a result, many voters thought
that the opposition parties were not prepared to help them to check for
their voting rights. Some of the pejabat parti were set up well within the
50 meters restriction zone.
2. Most of the polling stations were only provided with no more than
three units of computers for the purpose of checking voter's registration,
plus two or three hard copies of the electorate rolls for manual checking.
And the data of the computers often do not match with the data of the hard
copies placed in the polling classrooms. Some of the computers were not even
compatible with the discs and simply served as decorative items. The long
queues created in most parts of the PJ Utara parliamentary constituency were
unprecedented. We have lost counts on how many voters have eventually given
up on casting their ballot papers out of frustration. Such scenarios have
certainly affected the turnout and eventually change the outcome of the
election result. The SJKC Sg Way polling station for instance has 16
streams/ classrooms, with total voters of over 8,000. How could the EC
workers cope with just 3 or 4 computers? (PJ Utara, Puchong and Klang)
3. Senior citizens were sent to vote at polling classrooms located
upstairs instead of the usual ground floor.(PJ Utara)
4. SPR clerks were found writing voter's number on the ballot paper
or the counterfoil. This is done deliberately to intimidate the voters so
that they would not dare to vote for the opposition.(Sg Pelek and PJ Utara)
5. On polling eve, 73 voters were found registered using the same
address in Section 17, under the Bukit Gasing state constituency. Another 6
were found at the same address a day earlier, also in Section 17 PJ. DAP
Bukit Gasing candidate John Chung has made police report as well as alerting
the SPR office in PJ.
6. There were no reasons whatsoever to extend the voting hours for
the entire state of Selangor for another two hours at the last minute. Some
of the polling classrooms at the SJKC Sg Way polling stations have actually
started the counting when the announcement finally reached the centre. DAP
Pandamaran candidate Tee Boon Hock and DAP Kota Alam Shah candidate William
Thye Kim Keong have made police reports besides lodging a protest with the
SPR office.
7. DAP PJ only received the list of polling stations two days before
the polling day. But we have reasons to believe that MCA and other ruling
parties have received such information much earlier than us. They even have
time to print out a big number of voter's cards for distribution before the
polling day.( PJ Utara and PJ Selatan)
8. Voters who used the SMS service or check their names from the SPR
website were not able to know their particular polling station. No such
information was available from the SPR website throughout the campaign
period.
9. Polling stations were changed for no reasons in PJ Utara. Those
who have voted at the SK Taman Megah were transferred to SJKC Yuk Chai for
no reasons. Similar changes took place in Puchong and elsewhere.
10. Many voters could not find their names at their usual polling
stations. Some were actually transferred out of their original constituency
without any notice.
11. In Taiping, the RO did not provide stream to stream result but
instead went straight to announce the overall result at about 11.30pm. DAP
candidate Ong Chee Keng has made a police report on the following day when
he was earlier challenged by the RO to take the SPR to court.
What have happened on 21 March 2004 was most unfair and unprofessional to
the voters and the opposition parties like DAP.
We reserve the rights to take legal actions against the SPR after a careful
study with our lawyers. We believe we have some very strong cases in the
case of "Bukit Gasing phantom voters" and Pandamaran, where our candidate
only lost by a very small margin.
We urge Tan Sri Abdul Rashid to bear full responsibility for the worst ever
election fiasco. He should step down immediately without waiting for the
findings of the proposed royal commission.
Further, in view of the total chaotic arrangement in Selangor, a re-election
should be arranged immediately.
(25/3/2004)
* Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew, DAP national publicity
secretary and Selangor state secretary
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