KUALA LUMPUR, 18 Jan: The Election Commission (EC) was allegedly involved in the registration process of awarding citizenship rights to foreigners, as reported in the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigations regarding the issue that happened in Sabah.
Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that the exposure in the RCI investigations proves the involvement of the EC in this issue and is also suspicious because the same thing is happening now in Selangor.
“What is being disputed now is that it does not follow the rules, the issue of corruption and what is even more surprising is the role of the EC in this fraudulent process.
“We want immediate response from the EC as it happened in the past and we have evidence regarding this matter,” he said today in a press conference here.
Also present was the Chief Minister of Selangor, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.
Previously, a former officer of the National Registration Department (NRD), Mohd Nasir Sugip gave a statement regarding the alleged cooperation with the authorities to change the demography of Sabah voters in the 1990s.
Mohd Nasir when giving evidence to the RCI regarding the immigration problem in Sabah claimed that his department had received instructions from the Election Commission of Sabah to provide identification cards to illegal immigrants to enable them to vote.
Nasir, who was detained under the ISA claims that the operation dubbed “Operation Bad Durian” was carried out between 1992 and 1995.
He claimed that the Sabah EC Director at the time, Wan Ahmad Wan Yusof submitted a list of 16,000 names to be classified as ‘Muslim Bumiputera’ voters.
Anwar, who is also the Selangor Economic Adviser, said that the Selangor State Government has been conducting surveys on new voter registrations amounting to approximately 400,000 people.
“There are about 138,000 who are undetectable. Are they all in the same category as alleged in the RCI.
“Now this is the responsibility of the EC to stop fraud and abuse of power,” he said.
He said that those who have been registered may not only be registered to vote in Sabah but also in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur or Johor.
