The Election Commission (EC) has detected the names of 13,000 people in Sabah whose status as electors is doubtful but could not drop them from the electoral roll as this is against the law, the Election Commission (EC) said.

Its chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said today that under the law, the EC is not allowed to drop the names of voters except on strong grounds.

He said that so far no one, including the next of kin, had come forward to assist in confirming the status of these voters.

“Even though we have displayed (the list of doubtful names) and sent the compact discs to political parties, we are still unable to trace them, most of whom are elderly citizens.

“In a situation like this, we depend on the National Registration Department and the electoral roll review by Mimos Berhad, as suggested by the parliamentary select committee on electoral reforms, to clean up the list,” he told reporters in Kota Kinabalu after opening a briefing for returning officers and their deputies as part of the preparations for the 13th general election.

In January, Abdul Aziz was quoted as saying that the commission would drop a total of 42,025 names (including 13,000 in Sabah) after finding that their records were doubtful.

Phantom voter issues have been a hotly debated topic in the state, with several leaders in the state demanding for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants and the alleged ‘Project IC’.

Vote-counting to only begin at 4pm

Abdul Aziz also announced that vote-counting process would only begin at 4pm for the polling centres which closed early.

“In the previous election, the ballot papers were counted as early as noon at several centres including in the Kinabatangan and Pensiangan parliamentary constituencies in Sabah,” he said.

The latest move was important, he said, to prevent the possibility of a result leak, and certain people using the information to launch a psychological war.

“This is a new challenge for the EC in the era of the social media and speedy communication such as Facebook, Twitter and short messaging system,” he said.

When asked whether the EC is proposing to ban the use of mobile telephones at vote-counting centres, Abdul Aziz said at the moment the commission has not made any decision to enforce such regulation.

He also appealed to the people of Sabah who have reached the voting age of 21 to register as electors to make them eligible to vote in the coming election.

He said that out of 1.19 million people in the state who are aged 21 and above, there are still 312,070 who have not registered as electors.

“I am advising them to register quickly; there is still time because the electoral roll will only be gazetted in May,” he said.

- Bernama