KUALA LUMPUR (Islam Online) - The Malaysian opposition front is fast moving ahead to prove that the elections of November 29 were not free of abuses and of serious
illegalities. The opposition still has enough time to press the courts to declare the elections null and void, if these allegations are found true, Islam Online was told by a member of the National Justice Party (NJP).
In the same breath, a non-governmental organization has backed the court action by Universiti Malaya economics professor K. S. Jomo, who wants to establish the illegitimacy of the recent general elections. Jomo has entered a case in the High Court of Malaysia on the fact that 680,000 new voters were not allowed to participate in the polls.
"We have evidence of massive cheating nationwide. We are compiling the evidence and will soon be filing election petitions," said Marina Yusoff who heads her party's election supervisory committee. Yusoff, a non-practising lawyer is a member of the NJP, whose leader is the wife of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
NJP said that "A large chunk of the votes in several constituencies are postal votes, which some said were strangely all marked for the BN," the ruling party. NJP added that a Royal Commission of Inquiry should be convened immediately to look into the matter.
Postal votes save ruling coalition
The postal voters cast their votes a few days before the rest of Malaysia. Most of the postal voters are members of the Malaysian army, police forces and other civil servants believed to be pro-Anwar. There are 250,000 postal voters in Malaysia. Mahathir's government coalition won the elections with a margin of 55 percent and roughly a majority of 200,000 votes over the opposition, which garnered 3.25 million votes.
Some witnesses who were monitoring the vote counting said that, in the beginning of the count, some National Front candidates were losing badly. "Then they brought out the postal votes very late and well after the stipulated times of counting and the result suddenly changed to a win for National Front," said one witness.
"Votes for the Alternative Opposition Front turned up in wrong areas and were considered spoilt votes. Where a government candidate, such as Minister Najib Tun Razack was trailing to the opposition candidate, bags of postal votes were brought in and surprisingly enough the votes were 100 percent for the minister." Islam-Online was told.
Yusoff urged the Election Commission to investigate the irregularities and "when proven correct" to declare the elections null and void, and call for fresh polls. "The basic rights of the people under the federal constitution have been eroded and the election laws
and procedures have been seriously breached," she added.
Among other major irregularities reported was that some of 680,000 registered voters who were not allowed to vote in these elections went to polling stations and were able to vote after all.
"Some voters whose names were missing from the electoral list refused to budge until allowed to vote. A second list was then brought out from under the table and, surprisingly, their names were on this second list," the NJP official said, adding that a huge number of voters went home frustrated, being unable to cast their vote.
Observers had expressed concern over the large number of abstentions and rejected votes in these elections. Voter turnout was around 75 percent, slightly higher than in 1995 and in some cases the number of split votes were higher than 8 or 10 percent of the total votes.
Some voters were told they had already voted when in fact they had not. They were shown the list and their names had been "cut off" as if they had already voted. "They knew they had not voted and that someone else had voted in their place. We have these people ready to come to court and express themselves." the opposition member said.
Waxed ballots?
He added that "In some areas, reports said that the ballot papers had some sort of wax or resin where the AF box was. Some voters confirmed that they could not mark the BA box properly as it was too slippery and that the special pencil marking became powdery and just came off. Some SPR officers did not allow them to use their own pen."
Some candidates reported that the ballot boxes were opened without their representatives present, which is a serious offense under electoral laws. Party agents verified that in some boxes the votes counted were more than the votes cast and some voting papers were found in rubbish bins behind the counting hall.
Checks on the Electoral Register supplied by the Election Commission on CD-ROM revealed very serious irregularities. In the Federal Territory, there are 52% of voters who do not have dates of birth and dates of eligibility. In Kubang Pasu alone, the main constituency of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, thousands of voters' identity card numbers appear in perfect sequence.
NGO supports 680,000 outcasts
The case of the 680,000 young voters who were not given the chance to vote is also being taken to court. The People Are the Boss movement is pursuing the matter and say they want to make sure that "the long struggle for free and fair elections, and to improve the quality of democracy in Malaysia begins after all."
The movement added that it will hand a petition to the Election Commission as a show of support for the plight of the newly registered voters. The NGO intends to hold a peaceful demonstration in conjunction with the court hearing of the EC's application to set aside Jomo's lawsuit on Dec 20.
"We hope to create more awareness and to call upon all citizens to support the newly registered voters to fight for their voting rights," said Ong of the organization.
Professor S K Jomo, who registered as a voter this year, had applied to the High Court to nullify the recent general elections on the ground that he and 680,000 other newly registered voters were denied the right to vote.
The Election Commission filed an application to set aside the suit after it had entered a conditional appearance on Nov 23, where it argued that Jomo's action was an abuse of the court's process and was frivolous and vexatious.
Lim Kit Siang of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) said that "It is a shame that the country which is promoting the Multimedia Super Corridor and that built a cyber city could not have the electoral list of new voters ready in time for the elections."
Lim lost both his bids to regain his seats in the parliamentary and state elections in November last. He lost by a margin of 2,000 votes.
Foreign election watch-dogs also expressed concern over the irregularities they noticed during these elections. One such organization, from Thailand, said it has evidence some foreign nationals were given temporary Malaysian blue identity cards to vote.
"The election is null and void if proven rigged" Marina Yusoff said, confident that the courts will have to hear the opposition claims if the Electoral Commission dismisses them.
