Military personnel’s husband registered as female voter

G Vinod | September 6, 2011
Free Malaysia Today

The DAP has detected 22 more cases of discrepancies in postal votes in Negri Sembilan.

KUALA LUMPUR: The DAP detected 22 more cases of discrepancies involving fresh postal voters registered at an army camp at the Rasah parliamentary constituency in Negri Sembilan.

One that stands out is a female military personnel, Yuzina Nodin, who had registered her spouse also as a female postal voter with an almost similar name, Yuniza Nodin.

“I never knew the Malaysian army allowed same-sex marriages. This is a joke,” DAP Youth chief Anthony Loke said at a press conference at the party’s headquarters here today.

Also present was DAP election committee secretary Vincent Wu.

Loke, who is also Rasah MP, said the rest of the newly registered postal voters at the Rasah military camp, mostly spouses of military officers, had discrepancies in their MyKad numbers.

“We found 19 spouses of male army personnel are registered under their husband’s MyKad numbers, which are odd numbers. The other two female army officers registered their spouses using the former’s MyKad numbers, which are even.

“It’s a known fact that only males are given odd numbers in their MyKads while females carry even numbers. Can the Election Commission (EC) explain this?

“In addition, most of them have the same date of birth as their spouses,” said Loke.

Open to voting fraud

This is not the first time Loke detected discrepancies involving postal voters. Last month, he uncovered the case of a 111-year old military officer who registered as a postal voter in the Bagan Pinang state assembly seat.

Loke also said a retired military personnel, M Kalidass, told the Perak DAP recently that he was still registered as a postal voter in Kluang, Johor.

“When we checked using his MyKad number, he is registered as a voter in Sungai Siput parliamentary constituency. However, when we used his former military identification number, the EC website also shows him to be registered as a postal voter in Kluang,” said Loke.

This could increase chances of a voting fraud as anyone could use Kalidass’ postal ballot to vote on his behalf, he added.

He said that a postal ballot would be issued under Kalidass’ name and any unscrupulous individual could use the latter’s ballot paper to vote.

“We are not allowed to enter an army camp. Nobody knows who is responsible for the ballot papers there,” said Loke.

Loke said he would file a complaint with the EC after compiling a full list of discrepancies involving postal votes.

“However, I doubt we can do much as the (electoral) list had already been gazetted,” he said.

Minor errors can be amended

Loke added the trend is worrying as his constituency alone saw an increase of about 600 army postal voters between April and June.

“In 2008, there were about 2,000 postal voters in my constituency and I suspect the number may double soon,” he said.

Meanwhile, EC deputy chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar urged Loke to file an official report at the nearest EC office as soon as possible.

“I appreciate Loke’s efforts. He can submit his official complaint at our office in Negri Sembilan. He can even approach me directly,” he said when contacted.

Although the list had been gazetted, Wan Ahmad said EC still had authority to amend minor errors in the electoral list such as the MyKad numbers, gender and religious status.

On the errors, he said EC’s data entry clerks or the assistant registrars tasked with registering postal voters at the defence ministry could have made the mistakes in the course of compiling the particulars.

Wan Ahmad said the EC would not tolerate such mistakes from anyone, even if they were the assistant registrars at the defence ministry.

“We will inform their superiors and blacklist them,” he said.