Pakatan turns tables on Najib over greeting card

The new year card sent by premier Najib Abdul Razak to voters in Selangor has done Pakatan Rakyat a favour - by showing up 'phantom’ voters.

Its elected representatives now want voters to report to the nearest local service centre operated by Pakatan parties if the card was sent to their address but to an unknown person.

PKR's Rawang state assemblyperson Gan Pei Nei (left) , who is Selangor Pakatan secretariat member, told Malaysiakini that the secretariat had decided at a meeting on Monday to collect such information from voters.

She said three state assemblypersons - Teng Chang Khim (Sungai Pinang), Halimah Ali (Selat Klang) and she herself - had raised the issue at the meeting, as they have received complaints.

“I received a complaint from a resident in Rawang that the card he received was addressed to Indian woman,” Gan said.

“He checked with neighbours but none of them knows the person either. So he suspects that she is a 'phantom’ voter. We will check on this complaint.”

Complaints to be checked out

Gan said that Teng revealed that a voter in his constituency was surprised to receive the card with his name and a new address on it, as he had relocated without yet updating his address with the National Registration Department.

She further said that, if these cases are verified, Pakatan would file a complaint with the Election Commission.

Gan has posted a message on her Facebook page calling on voters to provide information to Pakatan if they have received ‘suspicious’ greeting cards.

Selangor state exco Ean Yong Hian Wah had on Monday questioned how the BN had obtained the latest addresses of voters, and whether it was the coalition or the government which had footed the bill for the cards.

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim had previously claimed that a survey by the Selangor government on new voters in the fourth quarter of 2011, had determined that about 134,000 were untraceable .

Meanwhile, in a text message, Halimah (right) said she had been alerted to three cases of voters being listed under areas other than their original constituency - Selat Klang.

“The polling centre stated in the (Najib's) letter is different from the last general election, they (the voters) had been transferred to Port Klang and Kota Alam Shah,” she said.

“We referred to the EC which firmly denied any connection. All the names are still in EC’s Selangor list,” she said, adding she is expecting more such complaints to come to light.

Halimah said she is going to lodge a report at the Klang Selatan police station on Friday.

'You tell me ...'

When contacted later, Selangor BN coordinator Mohd Zin Mohamed said the BN sent out the cards based on details in the electoral roll.

As such data is considered to be public information, there is no issue of privacy being infringed, he explained.

"You tell me, this information is from the EC which has been uploaded to the public domain, (so is it) private and confidential?" he asked.

Mohd Zin claimed that the exercise is one of BN's approaches in engaging voters, and that some were appreciative of the gesture.

"You tell me, how do you identify who is a 'phantom' voter? Why should we be denied (the opportunity to) engage with voters? Is it against the law?"

The cases raised by Gan, he said, may have been due to technical errors during the mailing process.

He challenged Pakatan to complain to the EC if it finds 'phantom' voters.

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