Election Commission explains voters 'relocation'

The polling centre change for more than 13,000 voters in the Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election is to avoid congestion, Election Commission (EC) deputy chairperson Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said today.

He said the ‘locality correction’ was made in accordance with Section 7 of the Elections Act 1958 after taking public order into account as previous polling stations were no longer suitable.

"We made the locality correction for voters' convenience as we do not want one polling stream to have more than 3,000 voters as we will use new schools instead of old ones, and not opening two schools simultaneously as suggested by the opposition," he told reporters.

He was commenting on reports quoting Hulu Selangor PKR election director Fuziah Salleh as saying that 13,488 voters or one-fifth of the total voters in the constituency had been relocated to other polling centres.

Wan Omar ( above, right ) said the allegation that the relocation was deny victory to the opposition was baseless.

Reduced to six streams

He said Hulu Selangor now had 47 polling districts with the inclusion of two new polling districts, namely Kampung Baru Serendah (previously in Serendah) and Taman Bunga Raya (previously in Bukit Beruntung).

Wan Omar said 228 voters from Hulu Selangor were transferred to the Selayang parliamentary constituency for the same purpose.

"The number of voters in each area will be reduced from the six streams in the 12 ^th general election to three for voters' convenience," he said adding the ‘locality correction’ was not made prior to the by-election and totally unexpected as claimed by the opposition as they had been duly informed.

It was also done at the request of voters as well as due to changes of voters' addresses, he added.

Wan Omar also urged political parties not to put up provocative banners or notice boards as they transgressed the Election Offences Act 1954.

– Bernama