The name of a Filipino in Sabah, who was reportedly jailed in 2010 for holding a fake MyKad, has been detected in the Johor electoral roll.

NONE A pro-Pakatan Rakyat blogger, writing under the pseudonym ‘Milosuam’, said he had found a scanned news report by Sabah-based Daily Express dated Sept 21, 2010, in the news archives of the National Registration Department (NRD).

The report, said to have been published in both Daily Express and its Malay edition Harian Ekspres , is headlined ‘Fake MyKad: Filipino jailed’.

It states that the Kota Kinabalu Magistrate's Court had sentenced a 43-year-old Filipino to a year's jail for using a fake MyKad on Sept 20, 2010.

“Samsul Salleh, of Kg Likas here, pleaded guilty before Magistrate Cindy McJuce Balitus to using the document bearing the serial number 670110-12-5035 under his own name,” reads the report.

“Police arrested Samsul at 5.46pm on Sept 12 this year at Centre Point Sabah after checking the document.”

A search with the Election Commission’s (EC) online verification system using that MyKad number shows that a voter with the same name - Samsul Salleh - is eligible to vote in the state constituency of Permas, which is under Pasir Gudang parliamentary seat in Johor.

EC 'will check'

Both the Daily Express report and Samsul’s record were available online this morning when checked.

kuala terengganu parliament by election spr ec announcement 051208 wan ahmad wan omar Asked to comment, EC deputy chairperson Wan Ahmad Wan Omar (right) said the commission “will certainly investigate it”.

EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof later told Malaysiakini that the commission is checking the details with other government agencies - the Sabah court, NRD, Prison Department and Samsul himself.

"Once ready, the EC will issue a statement," he said in a text-message.

This episode has inevitably raised the question, again, of how a foreigner with a forged MyKad has managed to evade the scrutiny of both the NRD and the EC in getting himself registered as a voter.

The EC has always insisted that only eligible citizens whose personal details are recorded in the NRD database are able to register as voters.

In June, the authorities had busted a fake MyKad syndicate in Sabah and arrested 19 individuals including a NRD officer.

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