Penang PAS has questioned the inordinate number of postal voters in several districts in the state following the emergence of several cases where voters had their status changed without their knowledge.

bagan pinang by-election ec preparing postal votes 071009 01 The party’s state chief Mohd Fadzil Kemi said the situation raises the spectre of BN using this category of voters in the 13th general election, speculated to be held next year.

According to him, suspicions have been strengthened after the names of as many as 630 postal voters were found in the electoral poll for the Tasek Gelugor parliamentary seat.

The voters in the area have been spread between three state constituencies - Sungai Dua, Permatang Berangan and Teluk Ayer Tawar.

What has raised questions about this is the fact that these postal voters had previously voted as ‘civilian voters’, but are now said to have ‘lost’ their right to vote in such manner, said Fadzil.

He also said that Penang PAS has identified four voters in this situation.

NONE “We have done our investigations on these four voters," he said when contacted.

"Before this, they had voted as civilian voters, but now they’ve lost that right, whereas they have never applied to vote as postal voters.

“How can they automatically be made postal voters without having first filled in the Borang 1 applications? They need to apply first, only then can they be approved by the EC (Election Commission) (as postal voters)."

Although they have qualified to vote by post, he added, the individuals concerned are not supposed to have lost their right to vote as ‘civilians’.

Rules violated?

According to Fadzil, the EC transferred the voters from its master electoral roll to the list of new voters, which violates the elections regulations pertaining to voter registration.

“Our voters are permanently with us. They are the children of our friends. They are the wives of armed forces personnel who have been stationed here," said Fadzil, who is also the state’s deputy PAS elections director.

“We are asking why armed forces personnel are voting in one place while their wives are voting somewhere else.”

A number of the 'new voters' are registered to vote in places that “did not exist before this”, he claimed further.

“There is an army camp in the area, but there are not more than 1,000 people there. But there are as many as 2,300 postal voters, in addition to the 630 voters, which makes around 3,000 voters. It doesn’t makes sense,” he said.

The opposition has raised the issue of postal voters time and again as they claimed such voters could be deployed in marginal seats to give the ruling BN the edge.