ANTIDOTE A large crowd of several hundred DAP supporters gathered outside Wisma Sanyan, the postal vote counting station, on the evening of the Bandar Sibu parliamentary by-election last May 16.

This came after DAP polling agents had raised the alarm that irregular postal votes might overturn the 2,651-vote lead of state chief and party candidate Wong Ho Leng, at that stage of counting.

An unusually large number of spoilt postal votes, 208, had been detected by DAP polling agents watching the count in Wisma Sanyan.

Spoilt postal votes eventually made up an astonishing proportion, nearly 10 percent of the total number of postal votes, and more than half the total number of 395 spoilt votes in the entire constituency, out of 37,919 votes cast.

Protests by polling agents on both sides had grown heated. After the counting had been completed, there was a delay of an hour-and-a-half in tabulating the postal votes.

NONE Restless DAP supporters, milling around and thronging the police lines downstairs, were heard complaining that an effort was under way to manufacture more votes to make up the difference between the candidates.

The anger in the crowd turned into jubilation, though, after the postal votes were finally moved to the polling centre at Dewan Suarah, and the news filtered through that Wong had been elected, by a slim majority of 398.

One DAP supporter insisted that the large and visible presence of DAP members at Wisma Sanyan had succeeded in discouraging election officials from trying to ‘steal votes' and ‘stuff ballot boxes'.

Postal votes open to abuse

In its final report published on the by-election, the independent Sibu Election Watch (SEW) observer group noted that "under postal voting, there are suspicions that thousands of voters cast their vote out of the views of the party (polling) agents".

SEW pointed out that postal votes are typically administered by police and military officers, and not by the Election Commission (EC), the only agency mandated to do so by the constitution.

It argued that this practice is open to abuse: postal votes can be taken home, and therefore might even be sold to the highest bidder.

SEW's conclusion was that "polling, counting, tabulation and announcement, which cover both ordinary voters and postal voters, were marred by irregularities that call for a full auditing of the election process, especially on the postal votes."

NONE Wong Meng Chuo ( left) , the head of SEW, remains uncertain if the EC will improve its approach in the April 16 Sstate election.

"The main problem lies with the postal votes if (the election) is carried out in the usual manner - (but) I understand that those eligible for postal voting will cast their votes in a polling centre prior to the polling day," Wong said.

If this reform is carried out in the coming state election, he told Malaysiakini , then ‘ballot box stuffing' can be reduced, particularly in the urban constituencies.

"However, we cannot rule out (manipulation of vote-counting) in the rural areas, where party polling agents are not present, or they are not well trained to monitor the event," he cautioned.

"If the EC implements the new voting system for postal voters, then the chaotic scenes (as seen at Wisma Sanyan) can be prevented. However, it seems that EC's good record in managing elections in a fair way is yet to be seen," Wong added, with some irony.

One change recommended by SEW and other civil society groups, that postal voting be allowed for the Sarawakian diaspora working far from their homes in this vast state, will certainly be ignored by the EC.

Phantom voters aged 130 years

Despite claims by the EC that there are no phantom voters in Sarawak, SEW's report on the Sibu by-election criticised the commission for failing to update its electoral roll.

SEW discovered "208 voters who are 100 years old or above, with the oldest born in 1880. It reveals that the problem... remains unaddressed since the earlier observation mission in 2006, where hundreds of dead voters were discovered in the electoral roll".

The oldest voter in Sibu, assuming he had still been alive, would have been M Mahli Sulong, at the impressive age of 130. By leaving the deceased voters in the roll, Wong said, the EC had given rise to the suspicion that others might take over the identity of the dead voters to cast ‘phantom votes'.

According to him, there are many other pitfalls in ensuring that election results will be representative of the voters' will, including the geographical terrain and difficult access to many rural constituencies.

"It is possible that contesting parties, especially the Pakatan Rakyat, would not be able to field enough polling agents at the interior polling centres.

"If that is the case, then the manipulation of results can possibly take place. It is also public knowledge that the transportation of ballot boxes by EC vehicles, boats or helicopters (during past elections) was not accompanied by polling agents," he explained.

Minimum standards for free and fair elections

SEW is continuing to urge for minimum standards for free and fair elections, including:

A universal franchise of one vote for each citizen;

    • Freedom of participation by all parties and individuals in campaigns;

    • Freedom of expression, including criticism against the incumbent parties;

    • Freedom of assembly, association and movement;

    • Reasonable access to the media by all contesting parties; and

    • Freedom of choice for all voters to cast their ballots.

    To support these standards, Wong concluded, "members of public can participate in Election Watch or report irregularities to observation groups or the EC", as well as inform the media.

    Offences can also be reported to the police, EC enforcement officers and the MACC in cases of bribery.

    KERUAH USIT is a human rights activist - ‘anak Sarawak, bangsa Malaysia’. This weekly column is an effort to provide a voice for marginalised Malaysians. Keruah Usit can be contacted at keruah_usit@yahoo.com