PAS today claimed that it has proof of an alleged plan by Barisan Nasional (BN) to bring in voters from outside to cast their ballots in Kelantan and Terengganu.

At a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, press secretary to PAS president Roslan Shahir Mohd Shahir and PAS Youth secretary Ahmad Sabki Yusof said they have received information regarding this.

They said PAS has been tipped off on the schedule of the buses which will allegedly ferry this voters from other states, including university students.

According to the duo, BN will be allegedly paying these voters between RM300 and RM600 per person.

Roslan also claimed that BN employed the same tactic during the 2004 general election where PAS lost Terengganu to the ruling coalition.

He said Terengganu saw an extraordinary increase of over 90 percent in registered voters from 1999 to 2004.

Using the discrepancies

However, the duo declined to reveal more information regarding the alleged plan when quizzed by reporters.

"(Election Commission chairperson Abdul) Rashid (Abdul Rahman) should know better. When we previously exposed the existence of 28 voters aged 100, EC finally acknowledged that there are 8,000 voters over the age of 100 on the electoral roll," said Roslan.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Abdul Rashid have repeatedly denied the existence of phantom voters on the electoral roll.

Meanwhile, Roslan said PAS believes that BN with the help of EC will use all the discrepancies in the electoral roll to net enough votes to win Kelantan.

He alleged that this includes:

- Army and police personnel who are registered as postal voters but also registered as civilian voters

- Voters who have been transferred to or registered in Kelantan without their knowledge.

- The names of the same registered voters appearing in different constituencies

- Registering voters with fake ID

- Mass registration of voters and using undue influence such as registering university students and factory workers.

PAS has controlled Kelantan - Malaysia's only opposition controlled state - since 1990.

The Islamic-based party’s position in the state was not seriously challenged until 2004 when PAS barely hung on to a simple majority at the 45 seat state legislative assembly.

At present PAS controls 23 state seats while Umno has 22.

Umno has also accused PAS of bringing in outside voters to bolster its position.

Abolish postal votes

Meanwhile, Ahmad Subki said polls reform group Bersih has called for the abolishment of postal voters because of the lack of transparency and susceptibility to abuse.

"We (political parties) are not even allowed to meet them. What's the point? We should give them the right to vote, but as civilians. The security reasons given can't be accepted anymore," he said.

Postal votes make up a significant proportion of each constituency and currently there are over 200,000 registered postal voters all over the country.

Roslan said PAS will attempt to nab these phantom voters at every constituency, adding that the party’s 'boys' will be equipped with video cameras to record the evidence.