DAP confused over Teluk Intan voting process, says polls body chief
The Malaysian Insider – 2 hours 24 minutes agoRELATED CONTENT
- DAP confused over Teluk Intan voting process, says polls body chief
The Election Commission (EC) has spoken out against DAP’s accusation that the polls body was dishonest in running the Teluk Intan by-election, saying the opposition party was confused with the electoral voting process.
EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof (pic) said the DAP had mistakenly taken into account the figures released when voting ended at 5pm on May 31, when the party should have instead only used the official data the EC revealed when it announced the results.
"The figures and percentage we announced every hour from 9am to 5pm were unofficial," Aziz told The Malaysian Insider.
"The figures also do not include the postal and early votes." he added.
DAP strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming yesterday said the total turnout of voters announced when polling ended did not tally with the figures the EC released when it declared the results later that night.
Ong said the EC announced 38,850 voters came out to cast their ballots, but together with the 392 early votes, the total number of votes would be 40,242, instead of 40,619.
Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Mah Siew Kong obtained 20,157 votes while DAP's Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud received 19,919 votes. There were 543 spoilt votes.
Ong said there was a discrepancy of 377 votes between what the EC originally announced and the final results, and the figure was more than the winning majority of 238 votes.
"When the voter turnout percentage was released at 5pm, we did not know how many votes were spoilt nor how many ballots were cast," said Aziz.
"The results announced at 9.45pm were the official results," he said, adding that no DAP representative were present when the results were read out at the main centre.
"Some voters also did not return their ballots."
The EC had issued 40,668 ballots on polling day but the candidates only received 40,076 votes, said Aziz.
This meant there was a difference of 592 votes, in which 543 of them had been spoilt.
"The remaining 49 votes were the ones not returned. Forty-two ballot papers were not returned during postal voting, while seven others were not returned during normal voting," he said.
Aziz said the EC had issued 223 ballot papers for postal voting, but only 155 were returned.
"26 votes were spoilt, while 42 were not returned," he said.
Meanwhile, the EC issued 392 ballot papers for early voting, but only 385 were returned while seven were spoilt.
"The voter turnout, including postal voters, was 67.4%," he said.
He added that Ong should have contacted him immediately to clear the air, noting that the lawmaker had his mobile phone number.
"I have not received their letter. They could just call me for an explanation.
"But perhaps they intentionally want to tarnish the EC's image, as if we had made a mistake," said Aziz.
He said the EC did not manipulate any figures in the by-election and carried out their duties according to the law. – June 7, 2014.
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