KUCHING, Dec 19 — The state PKR today alleged unfair election practices that favoured Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) for the Opposition’s poor performance in the just-concluded 12th Sarawak election.
Its information chief Abun Sui Anyit said the results could have been different if voters aged 18 to 21 had been allowed to cast their votes yesterday in accordance of the gazetted the Undi-18 law.
“Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) was clearly speeding up the election this time around to avoid Undi-18 and to ensure their monopoly in the state to continue,” he said in an early post-mortem report of the state PKR’s performance in the Sarawak election.
Abun said this affected about 150,000 voters aged 18-21, who were automatically registered in Sarawak.
He said about 500,000 new voters who were automatically registered also did not have the chance to vote.
He added that more than 250,000 Sarawakians working and studying in the peninsula were unable to return to vote due to very expensive flight tickets.
He said the Election Commission (EC) and the state government should have ensured that that voters in the peninsula could vote by post if they were unable to return to Sarawak to cast their ballot in person.
According to Abun, the low voter turnout was also because polling was held on Saturday instead of Sunday.
“Had the election been held on a Sunday it would have given Sarawakians who live across the state time to make the long journey home to vote.
“In some places, voters had to take air, road and river transport to reach their hometowns just to cast their votes. Both of these factors deterred many voters from going out to vote,” he said.
Abun blamed the GPS government’s failure to ensure stable internet accessibility in the rural areas for difficulties in the Opposition parties’ ability to campaign online.
He said that unlike the GPS candidates, the Opposition did not have access to mainstream media channels to disseminate their information to voters.
“Apart from that, money politics is widely practised in the political arena in Sarawak,” he alleged.
He claimed voters had been given money before and after they cast their ballots as inducement to vote for certain parties, adding that PKR has filed complaints to the police, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the EC for action.
PKR fielded 28 candidates in the Sarawak election but none of them won.
