Marked ballot papers for Indonesia's polls found in Bangi
More than 50 plastic bags filled with marked Indonesian ballot papers have been reportedly discovered at a vacant shop lot in Bangi ahead of early voting for Indonesians residing overseas this Sunday.
Online portal Detik.com quoted Kuala Lumpur election monitoring committee chief Yaza Azzahra as confirming the discovery of the ballot papers which were marked in favour of Indonesia's President Joko Widodo and his running mate Ma'aruf Amin as well as for several legislative candidates from parties in their coalition.
More than 50 plastic bags filled with marked Indonesian ballot papers have been reportedly discovered at two locations in Bangi and Kajang ahead of early voting for Indonesians residing overseas this Sunday.
Online portal Detik.com quoted Kuala Lumpur election monitoring committee chief Yaza Azzahra as confirming the discovery of the ballot papers which were marked in favour of Indonesia's President Joko Widodo and his running mate Ma'aruf Amin as well as for several legislative candidates from parties in their coalition.
"I received information at around noon and I immediately went to the location where it was said that there were marked ballot papers.
"Based on the sample that we took, we found marked ballot papers. The majority were marked for '01'," said Yaza in reference to the Jokowi-Ma'aruf pair who are up against retired general Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Sandiaga Uno, listed on the ballot paper as "02".
"We have informed the election monitoring body (in Jakarta) of this matter," she was further quoted as saying.
Sources told Malaysiakini the total number of marked ballot papers found could be as high as 50,000 including those found at the second location in Sungai Tangkas, Bangi.
"There were 97 bags found at the shop lot in Taman Kajang Utama and 158 bags found in Sungai Tangkas with each bag containing around 200 marked ballots," said the source.
Separately, news portal Kumparan.id quoted Indonesia's election monitoring body commissioner Fritz Edward Siregar as confirming that a report had been received over the incident and that it has requested to temporarily suspend the elections in Malaysia.
"We will request the Election Commission to suspend the voting process throughout Malaysia until further notice," Siregar was quoted as saying.
Early voting for the republic's legislative and presidential polls on April 17 will be carried out by its foreign missions together with an election monitoring committee.
With some 1.5 million Indonesian registered voters here, Malaysia makes up the largest diaspora of the republic's overseas voters.
Indonesia's deputy ambassador to Malaysia Krishna KU Hannan previously said that six voting centres will be opened nationwide on April 14 in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru, Pulau Pinang, Kuching, Tawau and Kota Kinabalu.
Earlier today, several videos circulated on social media showed scenes from an alleged raid on a vacant shop lot by local police believed to be from the Bangi police station.
It is understood that a police report has also been lodged over the discovery of the ballot papers.
Malaysiakini has contacted Kajang district police chief Ahmad Dzaffir Mohd Yussof for comments. It is understood that the matter is currently under investigation by Bukit Aman and a statement will be released soon.
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