EC willing tool of Umno-BN, charges Sarawak PKR

Sarawak PKR has accused the Election Commission of being in cahoots with Umno for the political expediency of the Umno-led BN government.

"The ongoing hearing of the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on Sabah's immigration problems has clearly shown that the EC has been acting in cahoots with Umno for the political expediency of the Unmo-led BN government," said See Chee How ( left) , the state PKR vice-chairperson.

The PKR leader, who is also Batu Lintang state assemblyperson, was commenting on the revelations from the on-going RCI that thousands of foreigners have been given identity cards (IC) to enable them to vote BN in past elections.

He said among the exposes, is the former Sabah National Registration Department (NRD) officer Mohd Nasir Sugip's statement that between 1992 to 1995, his department took instructions from the state Election Commission (EC) to provide 16,000 unqualified immigrants with identity card numbers so that they could vote in the election.

"The result was telling, he gave an example of the planting of around 800 votes in the state seat of Sugut, resulted in BN winning by 79 votes in the following polls .

"Another Sabah NRD officer Yakup Damsah testified that he and a group of other NRD officers signed for 40,000 identity cards to be issued to Indonesian and Filipino immigrants in the then Mahathir's political secretary Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin's house in Kampung Pandan.

"And the former Sabah NRD director Ramli Kamaruddin said that the operation to issue identity card receipts to immigrants was carried out after he had personally received instructions from then-deputy home minister Megat Junid Megat Ayub two weeks before the Sabah state election in 1994," See said.

‘Willing BN political tool'

He added that although the RCI hearing has just begun, these critical testimonies recorded so far have clearly shown that the EC has no moral authority to claim itself to be an independent body capable of conducting clean and fair elections.

Even though the Project IC carried out to oust the PBS government in Sabah had happened almost 30 years ago, the fact that the EC today is unwilling to adopt the popular Bersih demands and clean up its act shows that the electoral body is maintaining its consistency as the BN government's political tool.

"It is sad that an independent body legally is only answerable to the Parliament has relegated itself to becoming an Umno underling," he lamented.

He pointed out that to redeem itself and earn the needed public confidence, it should immediately reverse its stance on the Bersih demands and take the first bold step to appoint a panel of representatives from concerned social groups and individuals to clean up the electoral roll before the polls.

"But the EC is poised to ignore the popular public aspiration for electoral reform. It is the last bastion of Umno's political survival.

"It will take the concerted effort of all Malaysians to ensure that we have a more transparent, free and fair election.

"But the Malaysians can do it, evinced by their participation in the ‘Kebangkitan Rakyat Rally' in Kuala Lumpur a week ago," he said.

Describing the turnout as historic, he said that the number of people who turned up at Merdeka Stadium on Jan 12 was double that of the rally held before the 2008 polls.

See hopes that Malaysians would rise up and ‘Kebangkitan Rakyat' spirit will be intensified over the next three months, peaking at the moment they cast their votes .

He said: "Every Malaysian, whether voter or otherwise, must actively play the poll monitor role starting from today because all political and institutional machineries have been activated in this run up to the elections."

Propaganda through the controlled media, the misuse of public funds for political patronage and abuse of power by public authorities to stifle Pakatan's campaign must be exposed by the public, to ensure that all voters are well informed to foil any attempt at vote-rigging and electoral manipulation, he added.