Despite the court excluding Selangor Election Commission (EC) chief Hashim Abdullah from being cross-examined, a PKR assemblyperson stressed that Hashim must still answer for the dubious voters registered in the state.

"While I respect the decision, I believe that the matter of the 136,272 voters without addresses raised by the state government in its suit against the EC, should be give due attention," Batu Tiga assemblyperson Rodziah Ismail said in a statement today.

The state is currently suing the EC over the existence of voters with dubious details, including those without addresses in the electoral roll.

They had applied  to cross-examine the state EC chief over the matter, but was denied by the court.

However, Justice Azizul Azmi Adnan had allowed a discovery application by the state government, and ordered the EC to give information on the changes in locality (polling districts) of 136,272 dubious voters during the last two redelineation exercises performed in 2004 and 1993.

In any case, Hashim's failure to come forward with a plausible explanation to the questions raised, will serve to erode the already declining public confidence in the EC, she argued.

Furthermore Rodziah warned that the use of incomplete information by the EC to register the voters not only angered the locals but gave the impression that the commission, and by extension its chairperson, is lax in performing its duties.

She called on Hashim to come forward with public explanations about the discrepancies. She said that he needs to explain:

  • Why the EC went ahead with its proposed redelineation when it was clear they have dubious voters in the roll;
     
  • Did the EC actually conduct any checks to weed out dubious voters from the electoral rolls; and
     
  • What is the EC's next course of action to handle the cases of the voters without addresses.

"I want to say that rakyat are watching and evaluating each move that Hisham makes," said Rodziah.

She concluded that if the matter is not handled properly, it may cause the rakyat to lose faith in the Malaysian electoral system, and neglect their duties as voters.