Pakatan claims found 1,600 ‘foreign’ voters

By Shannon Teoh

August 03, 2011

Nurul Izzah said PR will seek an emergency parliamentary sitting to discuss the issue. — file pic

PETALING JAYA, Aug 3 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has accused Datuk Seri Najib Razak of losing control of institutions that govern elections after the opposition pact claimed to have discovered 1,600 cases of foreigners being given the right to vote between March to June this year alone.

Opposition lawmakers also said that this raised doubt over other border protection programmes such as the current drive to register millions of migrant workers — both legal and illegal.

PKR vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar told reporters that PR would formally request, by the end of the week, for an emergency sitting of Parliament to be called during the Ramadan fasting month to debate the issue of fraudulent voters.

“The prime minister said a few days ago at the Malaysian Student Leaders Summit that he is committed to electoral reforms and no chance will be given to phantom voters.

“Now, just a few days later, we have media reports of foreigners being given the citizenship. If Najib does not agree to the sitting, then it shows he has lost control of these institutions that have wrested power from his administration,” the Lembah Pantai MP said.

PAS election director Hatta Ramli said there was deliberate collusion involving agencies under the home ministry such as the National Registration Department (NRD) and Immigration, who he accused of working in tandem with the Election Commission.

The Kuala Krai MP said that with the registration programme for legal migrant workers now being conducted indefinitely instead of a July 31 deadline, it could be “abused to cover for the constant changes to the database.”

The lifting of the deadline also means that it now runs concurrently with the home ministry’s amnesty programme for illegal immigrants, putting further strain on the biometric system that employers and labour unions have said is “riddled with problems.”

“We doubt the real purpose of the registration programme as it now allows data to be changed so quickly,” he added.

PR also claimed that 1,108 permanent residents in the Klang Valley were given the status of full citizens yesterday alone, and ridiculed the notion that over 1,000 identification cards were issued within the day.

PAS vice president Salahuddin Ayub also showed documents claiming that, between 1.06pm and 2.30pm yesterday, three voters had their status changed from permanent residents to citizens “in the blink of an eye.”

“This was information downloaded from the NRD website itself and we have a total of 1,597 cases across the country.”