Press Statement (2) by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Tuesday, October 4, 1994 at 11am:
DAP directs all DAP State Committees, branches, MPs and SAs to be especially vigilant to ferret out ‘phantom voters’ when the new electoral rolls are put up for public display for two weeks from 12th October
DAP has directs all DAP State Committees, branches, MPs and Assemblymen to be especially vigilant to ferret out ‘phantom voters’ when the new electoral rolls are put up for public display for two weeks from 12th October.
The Election Commission should in fact open its records to political parties to ferret out the tens of thousands of ‘phantom voters’ registered in the 21-day Voters’ Registration Exercise in July, whether as new voters or through change address and constituency.
One of the essential tests as to whether the general elections in Malaysia is ‘free, fair and clean’ is whether the electoral roll is clean and honest.
It is an open secret that the Barisan Nasional parties had infiltrated ‘phantom voters’ into certain states and constituencies to gain unfair advantage over opposition parties – and Sabah was until recently the state where such electoral abuses was most rampant. There are reports that there are also such electoral abuses in various states in Peninsular Malaysia.
It is the duty of the Election Commission to prove that its electoral roll is clean and free of ‘phanton voters’, and the Election Commission should therefore open all its records to political parties to ferret out the tens of not hundreds of thousands of ‘phantom voters’ on the electoral register.