Bogus voters claim prompts call for EC chief's sack
PKR Youth wants Umno Youth to initiate action to remove the Election Commission chief after its own revelation that there were 3,000 phantom voters in the Permatang Pasir constituency.
PKR Youth wants Umno Youth to initiate action to remove the Election Commission chief after its own revelation that there were 3,000 phantom voters in the Permatang Pasir constituency.
PKR Youth leaders have challenged their counterparts in Umno to demand the Putrajaya administration to sack Election Commission chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof for failure to eliminate the phantom menace from the electoral roll.
Pointing out the Umno Youth's own complaint that some 3,000 phantom voters exist in the Permatang Pasir state constituency, PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar said such
accusations
revealed EC's incompetence eradicating phantom voters .
He said since Umno controlled the federal government, the youth movement could easily bring up the issue to the Putrajaya administration.
"Umno should demand the federal government to sack the EC chief for lack of competency.
"Why is the movement wasting time talking about it when they have the power to take action on the EC chief?," Shamsul said during last night's midnight news conference at a PKR service centre in Permatang Pauh town.
Also present were PKR's strategic director Tian Chua, Penang PKR Youth chief Yusmadi Yusoff, Selayang parliamentarian William Leong Jee Keen and Pantai Jerejak assemblyperson SIm Tze Tzin.
Penang Umno Youth had handed over an official letter and a list of alleged phantom voters to the state EC on Wednesday.
Its chief Norman Zahalan claimed that following a census on 30 houses in Permatang Pasir, Permatang Janggus and Bukit Jelutong, the movement discovered nine unidentified voters registered in two addresses.
He alleged that of the nine, two were Chinese voters registered under Malay houses and they were unknown to the owners.
Bogus residents in real houses
He also alleged that another address contained 14 voters, of which seven were unknown by the owner.
In a by-election rally on Thursday, Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin has claimed that the movement had evidence to prove that Pakatan Rakyat had planted about 3,000 phantom voters in Permatang Pasir.
Yusmaidi said he felt awkward to find Umno Youth suddenly emerging as ‘ghostbusters' to eradicate existence of phantom voters when normally it would be Pakatan assuming that role.
"Nothing was done when we complained. Now since Umno Youth has evidence, KJ and company should be gentlemen enough to initiate action to fire the EC chief," said Yusmadi, the Balik Pulau parliamentarian.
Earlier the PKR Youth movement complained about poison-pen letters and fliers alleged distributed by certain quarters in the Permatang Pasir by-election campaign to smear Pakatan leaders and undermine the coalition credibility.
Shamsul said the letters and fliers contained blatant lies and falsehoods about Pakatan leaders and Pas candidate Mohd Salleh Man, who faces a straight fight with Umno's Rohaizat Othman in the contest.
"The messages are to incite racial hatred and stir communal sentiments," he said, adding that the movement would lodge a complaint today at the state EC office.
Among the thousands of fliers allegedly distributed in the constituency and made available to newsmen, one portrayed PAS spiritual Nik Aziz Nik Mat as a Muslim hypocrite while another suggested that Penang Malays were puppets of the DAP Chinese.
In anther flier, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was pictured garlanded with a toilet bowl with racist graffiti on it.
Fliers full of lies
There were also fliers with caricatures showing PAS leaders compromising Islamic principles and values for political gains and Pakatan leaders were now transformed into zombies in Permatang Pasir.
Copies of leaflets purportedly written by PKR state youth, which Yusmadi understandably denied, were also distributed freely to passer-bys in the constituency.
The leaflet contained anti-Malay, anti-Penang government and anti-Chinese messages to the voters.
Yusmadi suggested that those behind the malicious campaigns were hitting PKR and Pakatan below the belt because "they have sensed a sure defeat in Permatang Pasir,"
"It's an act of desperation to avoid a humiliating and demoralising defeat.
"I am confident that the voters would realise all these are absolute lies," he said.
The fliers were reminiscent of similar racist and malicious campaign carried out by certain quarters during the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election 12 months ago.
