BUKIT MERTAJAM, 25 Aug 2008: The Election Commission (EC) will investigate the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) claim that 944 names of voters in Permatang Pauh are missing from the electoral roll.
EC secretary Datuk Kamaruzaman Mohd Noor said the commission would investigate the claim with its computer data division before making any comment.
“The (PKR) information may not be accurate but I will still check with the EC computer group on the data,” he said at a press conference at the vote tallying centre for the by-election at the Institut Perguruan Tuanku Bainun today.
Yesterday, PKR deputy elections director Fuziah Salleh claimed that the party found 944 voters names “missing” from the electoral roll for the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency although these voters had voted in the general election on 8 March.
Kamaruzaman said tomorrow’s Permatang Pauh by-election would use the 2007 Master Electoral Roll which was gazetted on 5 Feb 2008 and the Supplementary Electoral Roll for the First Quarter of 2008 which was gazetted on 19 July and updated on 31 July.
Kamaruzaman appealed for cooperation from all quarters contesting in the poll, especially party supporters, not to prevent eligible voters from voting from 8am to 5pm tomorrow.
At the same function, Fuziah, who met Kamaruzaman to seek an explanation on her claim, said the figure that was being disputed had dropped to 868 names.
“Yesterday, we said 944 names because we thought the EC was using the same electoral roll as the one used in the 12th general election, but the EC is using the electoral roll that was updated on 31 July 2008.
“However, we still find that 868 names of voters displayed on the EC website are not in the electoral roll received by each candidate,” she said. – Bernama
