Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), whose candidate is contesting the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat on a Keadilan ticket, yesterday released a book claiming to contain proof of phantom voters in 1999 in the constituency, widely seen as the domain of MIC president S Samy Vellu.

The author, Moharani Rasiah, is a campaigner for PSM's pro-tem committee member Dr D Jeyakumar (Sungai Siput) - to whom she is married - and K Gunasegaran (Jalong state seat).

"The irregularities we found were shocking," said Moharani in an interview in Sungai Siput yesterday.

Based on the findings, PSM claimed that as many as 5,000 phantom voters could have been registered in Sungai Siput for the 1999 elections.

Its 'evidence' includes the names of individuals who were allegedly registered with Sungai Siput addresses, including that of Samy Vellu's office in Taman Tun Sambanthan.

Moharani said checks into addresses with a large number of registered voters turned out to be 'empty land' as listed by the Kuala Kangsar Land Office - therefore, ruling these out as legitimate residential addresses.

Jeyakumar is embarking on his second attempt to get into Parliament against incumbent Samy Vellu and DAP's P Ponmugan in Sunday's polls. Samy Vellu retained the seat in 1999 with a majority of 5,259 over Jeyakumar's 12,221 votes.

Gunasegaran, better known as Segar, is involved in a three-cornered contest in Jalong against incumbent and Gerakan state chief Chang Ko Youn, and DAP's Ding Chin Aik.

Simple search

Moharani said a simple search was made into the 1999 electoral roll for Sungai Siput. It red-flagged households with more than five voters and examined each for irregularities such as different surnames, different race and disproportionate number of new registrants just prior to the election that year.

The search revealed a list of 340 individuals who allegedly did not reside in the constituency.

PSM local supporters then lodged a complaint with the Election Commission in September 2000, calling for the names of the alleged 'imported' voters to be purged from the electoral roll.

Following a public inquiry in October 2000, the commission moved to eliminate 330 names from the list - "a 97 percent success rate for PSM and a damning indictment of the existence of 'phantoms' on the roll", said Moharani.

MIC secretary-general S Sothinathan had turned up at the inquiry to explain the presence of those voters, she said.

Among names established by the commission as 'phantoms', and subsequently removed from the list were that of Perak Public Works Department director Dorairajoo Irulandy and his wife.

Records show that the two had been registered since 1998 at an address in Taman Heawood, Sungai Siput, which PSM alleged is the home of Samy Vellu's secretary JP Maniam. In addition, 14 other non-residents were registered at the same premises.

Malaysiakini's

attempts to reach Dorairajoo at his office today were unsuccessful.

Twelve individuals were found registered at the Gerakan premises at 118, Taman Tun Sambanthan, while scores of those with Christian names - since identified as members of Ipoh-based churches - were registered at Sungai Siput addresses where they do not live.

Moharani said 129 individuals were registered at Ladang Plang in 1998, although only about 16 families lived there then. A significant proportion had Christian names when the entire estate population comprised Hindus.

Since last year, however, citizens can no longer question the integrity of a verified electoral roll. Instead, the election laws only allow them to lodge protests over newly-registered names.

Moharani noted that this only punishes those who expose irregularities while protecting perpetrators.