Pakatan Rakyat is reluctant to dissolve the Selangor state assembly alongside Parliament, because of an inexplicable increase in the number of new voters in the state.

dr xavier jayakumar official photo Allowing the election to proceed at federal level, noted PKR’s Sri Andalas state assemblyperson Dr Xavier Jeyakumar, could serve as a litmus test of possible cheating.

"We will push the assembly, as far as possible, to the maximum term.

"We want to see how the 13th general election (is conducted)," Xavier told a press conference at the state assembly building today.

He said Selangor showed the highest voter increase in the country for the third quarter of 2011, compared with 2008.

"We know how many voters we have registered and we know how many voters Umno is registering, but these numbers are too high,” he said.

"If Umno is not registering and we are not registering (voters), where are these voters coming from?"

Xavier said Pakatan should avoid falling into a "trap", especially since BN head and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has signalled an all-out attempt to wrest Selangor back.

Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim had previously said that the state assembly would not be dissolved if the general election was called before June.

However, Anwar Ibrahim has said that a final decision has yet been made.

‘Something is wrong’

Selangor PAS commissioner Abdul Rani Osman, who is Meru  assemblyperson, said it was evident that something was wrong, since the Election Commission has accepted several objections to the electoral list filed by the party.

"Every time we make an objection, we need to pay a fee. The fact is, the EC should be paying us for doing its work," Rani said at the same press conference.

Automatic voter registration would resolve the problem, he added, stressing that this should be included in the ongoing efforts toward electoral reform.

According to a recent parliamentary written reply to PKR’s Batu MP Tian Chua, the number of voters has increased in rural and semi-rural seats such as Hulu Selangor (by 15,481), Gombak (by 15,467) and Kuala Selangor (by 10,083).

Urban constituencies such as Petaling Jaya Utara and Petaling Jaya Selatan, which are deemed to be safe seats for Pakatan, only saw an increase of 4,143 and 5,603 voters respectively.