PKR queries voting station change for 13,000
By Clara Chooi, The Malaysian Insider
PKR today demanded that the Election Commission (EC) explain the alleged relocation of voting stations that will affect 13,488 voters in the Hulu Selangor federal seat which it narrowly won by 198 votes in Election 2008.
PKR elections director Fuziah Salleh voiced concern this morning that the shift would cause chaos on the April 25 polling day when voters discover that their stations have been relocated.
“I have always been of the belief that the EC was merely a tool for the Barisan Nasional (BN), used to cause the fall of the Pakatan Rakyat.
“This is clearly an exercise of such a strategy. Imagine the chaos that would occur when the voters arrive at the stations they had earlier used to vote only to discover that their names had been moved elsewhere,” she told reporters here.
PKR is fielding Datuk Zaid Ibrahim to defend the seat won by Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad in Election 2008.
His death triggered the by-election which will see a four-cornered contest with Zaid and BN’s P. Kamalanathan as the main contenders.
Fuziah said the inconvenience of having to head to their actual voting station may eventually deter the voters from casting their ballots.
“This is a very unfair practice,” she said.
The Kuantan MP said she discovered the shift in the latest electoral roll from the EC, which was gazetted on April 5 and released on April 8 this year.
“We have the breakdown with us. Of course the EC will just say it’s a common exercise for them to clean up the electoral roll,” she said.
Fuziah said PKR would be working round the clock to inform the voters of the changes but condemned the EC for not informing them on their own.
