Alarm bells are ringing within Parti Keadilan Rakyat following its discovery that "thousands of names" are missing from the 2007 electoral roll to be used for the Ijok by-election on Saturday.

Information chief Tian Chua expressed concern that names in the current roll do not match those of the 2004 electoral roll.

"We have gone through the list and they are not there. Either all the people have all left Ijok or we have been given a completely different list. The numbers run into thousands (of people)," he told malaysiakini .

He said that at least 1,000 names are missing but added that the party is still compiling the figures.

According to Chua, a copy of the 2007 electoral roll was given to both PKR and Barisan Nasional on nomination day.

"A large number of names are missing compared to the 2004 voters' list. The number (in both lists) is almost the same, but (on closer examination revealed that a big number of) names had either been removed or added (in the 2007 list)," he said.

Checks on the ground

Chua also said there were other discrepancies from various incidents encountered by party members when they campaigned door-to-door.

"For example, the list indicates that a Malay person lives at an address. When we get there, we see an Indian family instead. And they tell us they have lived there all their lives and have never rented out any rooms," Chua explained.

He pointed out that the situation was the same with Chinese names listed at a house which Malay residents occupy.

"There is even a house with 30 Chinese names registered to that address," he said.

However, he was uncertain as to what the party could do about this because of time constraints.

"We're not sure (what to do). There is not much time to address this problem, we're not sure what's the best way to handle this," he added.

It has also been revealed on the Internet that one of the Ijok voters is only eight years old.

Apparently the voter, whose name is Ispani Mohd Rejo, has an identity card number of 990518610029 - the first two numbers being the year of birth.

According to the Election Commission website , where voters can check their voting details, eight-year-old Ispani is to vote in Ijok's Bukit Badong district.

Ijok is a mixed seat with Malays making up 50.6% of the electorate, Indians 28% and Chinese 20.9%.

The state seat fell vacant following the death of MIC incumbent K Sivalingam, 59, on April 4.

The by-election will see a contest between PKR's Khalid Ibrahim and Barisan Nasional's K Parthiban.

Fact boxes in Ijok