by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, September 27, 1994:
Election Commission should open all its records to political parties to ferret out the tens of thou-sands of ‘phantom voters’ registered during the recent voters’ registration exercise.
The Election Commission should 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 of 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 constit¬uencies 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.
The Election Commission should not ask the political parties to produce proof of ‘phantom voters’ on the electoral roll, as it is like the Anti-Corruption Agency asking the people to produce proof of corruption when everybody knows that corruption in Malaysia is rife and rampant!
It is the duty of the Election Commission to prove that its electoral roll is clean and free of ‘phantom voters’ and the Election Commission should therefore open all its records to political parties to ferret out the tens if not hundreds of thousands of ‘phantom voters’ on the electoral register.
Election Commission should invite political parties to ferret out the ‘phantom voters’ when it puts on public display next week the 800,000 new or transferred voters registered in July.
I understand that the Election Commission has been trying to rush out the new electoral roll and that the Election Commission would put on public display for objections next week its list of the 800,000 new or transferred voters registered in July.
What percentage of this 800,000 new or transferred voters registered in July are ‘phantom voters’?
The Election Commission should invite political par¬ties to ferret out the ‘phantom voters’ when it puts on public display next week the 800,000 new or transferred voters regis¬tered in July, by allowing the political parties full access to all voters’ registration records.