The Election Commission (EC) has denied claims that it had the number of votes in one ballot box during the April 16 Sarawak elections exceeded the number of registered at the polling centre.

In a statement today, EC secretary Kamaruddin Mohamed Baria said the claims by Malaysian Election Observation Network (Meo-net) coordinator Ong Boon Keong was unfounded.

Kamaruddin said Ong’s claims that the polling station - SK Pasai Siong Tengah - named by Ong with 236 registered voters did not exist.

However, there was a polling station called SK Siong Tengah, with the same number of registered voters.

Upon inspection, Kamaruddin said there were only 190 ballots cast at that polling station, of which 148 went to BN’s Joseph Mauh Ikeh, 38 to PKR’s Mengga Mikui while there were four spoilt votes.

“This means the ballots issued did not exceed the number of voters registered to vote at SK Siong Tengah, as claimed by Ong,” said Kamaruddin.

Form 14 was signed

Ong was among several unofficial election observers based in Sarawak during the polls.

He claims that he has found evidence that Joseph Mauh polled 251 votes, while Mengga Mikui 53 votes. Their joint tally of 304 votes exceeded the total on the electoral roll by 68.

Kamaruddin said the EC denies claims that it had inserted extra ballot papers in any ballot boxes.

“At the SK Siong Tengah polling centre, the counting was not performed elsewhere as claimed by Ong and instead counted at the centre itself and scrutinised by party agents,” said Kamaruddin

He said that the Form 14 signed by the party agents also show that they approve of the count.

He also urged those who dispute the results to lodge a petition with the courts and not spread rumours on the internet.

Agents 'bought over'

When contacted, Mengga said that he cannot furnish a copy of disputed Form 14 because the counting agent he had employed did not hand the form to him.

He claims that the agent had been “bought over”. He said that he could nto file an election petition without the Form 14.

Ong also stood by his allegation, claiming that the EC has changed the figure now to hide the irregularity.

"PKR's result scoresheet, which was compiled based on EC official result announced on polling day, showed the actual result," he said.

He sent Malaysiakini a copy of the result scoresheet which recorded that the total ballots cast exceeded the total registered voters.

"Many opposition polling agents had been bought over," he said.