Pua: EC's stealth on voter registration stats suspicious

The Election Commission’s (EC) reluctance to reveal the statistics of new voters being registered by political parties raises suspicions on the legitimacy of the electoral roll, said MP Tony Pua.

Pua hit out at the EC and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz (right)for attempting to deceive the public by stating, in a written parliamentary, that “the commission does not record the number of voters registered by political parties since 2008".

"This raises suspicions of hanky panky in the voters database," the PJ Utara MP told reporters at a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

He said news reports have quoted EC chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof saying that political parties’ appointed assistant registrars are vigorously registering eligible voters and that the number stood at 115,989 as of March 2011.

Pua distributed copies of the news reports, and another report in 2010 that stated that DAP was at the time leading Umno in the “race” to register new voters, with EC panel committee on voter registration and preparation chair Zainal Abidin Mat Said telling the news agency that DAP had registered 9,106 voters in July that year compared to Umno’s 7,230 registrations. 

“So the breakdown has been collected and kept by the EC, contrary to the minister’s (parliamentary) answer,” said Pua.

“Why doesn’t the government want to reveal it? The reason I am asking is because there are allegations of voters being planted, especially foreigners registered as voters,” he said.

The MP said he received the reply only last week, although he had asked the question during the Dewan Rakyat sitting in April.