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EC's magic: Now you see it, now you don't
Published:  Aug 12, 2011 7:51 AM
Updated: Aug 12, 2011 12:19 AM

your say 'Who has the authority to make these changes to the electoral rolls or log in and edit names? And what is to stop them from doing it again?'

'Cloned voters' vanish in 24 hrs, but questions remain

Lover Boy: The Election Commission (EC) is like Criss Angel : they can make things appear and disappear. The opposition is doing a good job in exposing the faults of the electoral roll, but like magic, the EC can make them disappear.

If they can make it disappear, what is there to stop them from making it appear again? EC, you can cheat and help BN win, but you cannot win the hearts of the people by doing this.

AkuMelayuIslam: Are we serious about these issues? Main suka-suka, masuk dan padam. No official explanation.

The EC and the National Registration Department (NRD) are taking this matter very lightly. The bosses may have an interest in these shenanigans, but kepada anggota kerja lain, jangan bersubahat dengan kerja yang tak beramanah.

Malahan, adalah tanggungjawab kamu untuk mangambil tindakan memaklumkan kerja kotor ini. Salam Ramadan.

Awtar: Now you see, now you don't. Wah, Malaysia boleh, EC boleh, NRD boleh, BN boleh. Semua boleh!

Anonymous_3e5a: EC had in many of its defences of the electoral roll said it had no power to make any changes. How is it they can now delete voters and add new voters in a blink of an eye?

Kgen: EC can remove the cloned voters detected and reported, but how many thousands more are still lurking in the rolls?

That's why we need indelible ink to stop multiple voting but EC won't implement it. Instead they want an expensive biometric system which will not stop multiple voting by the same person due to possible multiple entries in their database.

This raises grave suspicion that EC is not sincere in conducting free and fair elections. Bring on Bersih 3.0 and hold it simultaneously in every state.

Pants on Fire: It looks like cleaning up the electoral roll should be outsourced to Malaysiakini by EC.

To erase official records in Malaysia is easy, just like Altantuya Shaariibuu and her cousin's immigration entry records. Kalau itu boleh, semua pun boleh .

Anonymous_3f67: Can anyone explain who has the authority to make these changes to the lists? Which person in which office is able to log in so easily and start editing names and numbers?

And if they can do it now, what is to stop the same people from doing it again after the lists have been published?

Blind freddo: If these 'incorrect' entries can be so easily removed from the electoral roll, so can more 'incorrect' entries be added. It doesn't say much for the accuracy or integrity of the roll.

Anonymous_3da0: Is this how the EC carries out its constitutional duty of keeping the electoral roll up to date? The removal means nothing.

The question is: how did the entries make it onto the roll in the first place? How do we tell if for every cloned voter removed, EC is not putting in two in the list for BN?

Alan Goh: EC chief Abdul Aziz Yusof and deputy chief Wan Ahmad Wan Omar, the commission should not only be independent but must be seen to be independent.

If both of you fail to understand the role of EC or have no guts to carry out your duties then it is better that you resign. Take a drive to the little red dot down south that has successfully concluded their general election and learn a thing or two from them on how a clean and fair GE is carried out.

The best way out of this cloned voters and postal voters mess is to introduce the indelible ink instead of the biometric system. In this way, Malaysians can be sure that only registered Malaysian voters can vote only once and not a number of times.

Tkc: EC's reasons for not using indelible ink in GE12 were:

1. PDRM informed them that some people brought in similar ink from Thailand and were planning to cause mischief and disruption to the election. Since EC had only about a week to check on the veracity of that claim, it decided to veer on the side of caution by abandoning the use of indelible ink at the last minute (thus wasting RM2.4 million of taxpayers' money).

2. EC was concerned that saboteurs might mark the fingers of naive voters before they have the chance to vote thus depriving them of the rights.

But after three and half years, if EC is sincere about the use of indelible ink to stop phantom voters, it would have verified the authenticity of reason No 1 by now. For reason No 2, the EC has ample time to introduce guidelines and posters to educate the voting public on the do's and don'ts of indelible ink.

So EC, can you tell us again what the problem with indelible ink is and why are you so against it?

Gunner: The EC guys must be very cunning. I remember the EC chief issued a statement saying that it was very difficult to erase a voter's name as it has procedures to be complied with. But now names can be deleted in a day.

Ferd Tan: NRD director-general Jariah Mohd Said must be charged in court if she is complicit in the MyKad debacle.

Can a police report be made against the NRD department? We know that it is not the solution as we are aware of the police's efficiency, but at least it would put a spanner into the wheel of such wanton crime.

Anonymous_3da6: It looks like the computer system at EC and/or NRD is very weak. A good system will not allow duplicate identity cards to exist. Yet they claim that they have spent millions on the system.

It's easy to get rid of this error. All you need is to sort the database by IC no and you will see the duplications. It's a simple task which can be easily done.

Now they adopt the position that ‘if you find any duplication, we will clean them up'. And if you can't spot it, it's your bad luck.

It's high time some audit firm do a computer audit on the database. I am willing to offer myself to do national service for this task without pay.

Ghkok: I propose that a database of all these discrepancies be set up by Bersih. Collect all these data and then we can produce statistics of these discrepancies by constituency/state/agent.

We must know which agent send in these entries considering that political parties are serving as ‘recruitment agents' to get voters. All this evidence can be used to push for an emergency parliamentary session on this issue and/or push for a royal commission.

But it must be done fast before the evidence vanish because the EC is "cleaning the electoral roll on a daily basis".

 


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