PUTRAJAYA, April 24 — Electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 said today it has received as many as 80 fresh complaints about alleged discrepancies in the latest electoral roll, just weeks before the 14th general election (GE14).
Calling the complaints “the tip of the iceberg”, the group’s executive director Yap Swee Seng said voters were still encountering problems with the voting process despite the Election Commission’s (EC) promise to rectify such mistakes.
“We have submitted up to 80 cases of complaints regarding the electoral roll,” Yap told Malay Mail after he led a delegation to meet EC officials here.
“We actually received 120 complaints, but 80 are verified… we believe they could just be the tip of the iceberg.”
The complaints are typical of those Bersih have received in the past.
Yap said the highest number of complaints were made by those who found their names on the roll despite not having registered as voters. There were 24 complaints in this category.
Then there were those who found their names missing from the roll or moved out of their constituencies without prior notice.
Some complained that they were barred from changing their addresses, while others found the deceased still registered as voters.
There were also cases where voters had their names removed from the roll because they were deemed to be deceased.
Yap added that such voters will not be allowed to vote on May 9 if the EC fails to rectify the problem soon.
The memorandum was handed over to the electoral regulator’s corporate communication officers, Yap said.
“We want the EC to take immediate action and issue a written explanation to all complainants,” the Bersih 2.0 director said.
“They said they would look into it (the complaints), but gave no assurance that they would provide the written explanation.”
