PENANG Jelutong parliamentary DAP candidate Jeff Ooi has revealed that Election Commission (EC) officers have been instructed to be on stand-by and report for duty on May 4, a day before polling day on Sunday.

Ooi claimed that this is an “irregularity” as the EC has declared that vote counting would not begin until 4pm on May 5, for early voters.

“For vote counting to proceed, polling and counting agents from both parties (BN and Pakatan Rakyat) have to be present,” he said at a press conference.

“However, none of the counting agents from Pakatan have been notified of the vote-counting,” he added.

Ooi claims that if these allegations were true, then it would be a breach of the standard operating procedures (SOP) of the EC, adding that the commission would be “flouting the principles of democracy”.

Ooi also revealed several discrepancies in the EC’s website, complaints which they received from voters in the Jelutong parliamentary constituency.

He claimed that the order of voters’ names has been mixed up in the website for both the English and Malay versions.

A voter named ‘TAN THEAN BOON’ has his name reflected on the Malay language EC website but has ‘THEAN TAN BOON’ reflected on the English language version, he said.

“Apart from that, the name of the Parliamentary seat has discrepancies as well.

“While ‘050 - JELUTONG’ is reflected on the Malay language website, ‘050 - Butterworth’ is reflected on the English language version.

“But the parliamentary seat of Butterworth does not exist,” he said.

Ooi lamented that the names of the voting centres do not tally as well.

While ‘SEK JEPUN PULAU PINANG JALAN SUNGAI PINANG’ is reflected on the Malay language website, he noted that ‘SEK RIVER ROAD JAPAN PENANG PENANG’ is reflected on the English website.

Ooi expressed regret at the “incompetency” of the EC databases, urging the commission to correct the inconsistencies as soon as possible so as not to confuse the voters.

‘Names of absent voters appearing twice’

Meanwhile, Ooi pointed out that names of absent voters were appearing twice on the electoral roll.

“Some absent voters who are voting from overseas raised concerns after finding out that their name is also reflected in the regular voters’ electoral roll,” he said.

“This means that they are allowed to vote on May 5, even though they have already voted in Malaysian high commissions or embassies overseas on April 28,” he added.

“This is an irregularity as it means that these absent voters are allowed to vote twice,” he added.

Ooi said this was “illegal” as each voter is only allowed to vote once, and urged the EC to check again and rectify the electoral roll irregularities in time for the elections.

Meanwhile, Ooi pointed out that there are advance voters who were unable to find their names on the early voters’ list.

Temporary EC officers, who are government civil servants, would be on duty on May 5 and are supposed to be put under the early voters’ list.

“The advance voters are supposed to vote on April 30. However, some temporary EC officers who went to vote that day found out that their names were not on the list and thus were unable to vote,” Ooi claimed.

“This means that they would have to vote as a regular voter on May 5.

“This is problematic as they would have to be on duty at their work station and would not be able to leave (for their polling venues are not the same as their workstation) as they are supposed to facilitate other voters,” he said.

Ooi, the incumbent, is contesting the seat against BN’s Ng Fook Onn from Gerakan. In 2008, Ooi won with a majority of 16,246 in a three-corner fight against Dr Thor  Teong Ghee (BN) and Independent candidate Badrul Zaman PS Md Zakariah.