OFFENCE TO RELOCATE VOTERS

KOTA KINABALU: The Election Commission (EC) has warned that any attempt to relocate voters to any constituency by inducement is an offence under election regulations.

Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Api Api Central Liaison Committee (CLC) Chairman, Datuk Wong Yit Ming, said this was told to them when they paid a courtesy call to Sabah EC Director Datuk Hj Mohd Idrus Bin Ismail, recently.

He said Mohd Idrus was responding to an official complaint filed by them on the recent voter registration drive allegedly organised to 'import' new bumiputra voters into Api-Api constituency.

Wong and his delegation also handed over a copy of the police reports and the relevant photos taken at the scene of the registration exercise to Mohd Idrus to substantiate their claims.

The registration exercise was conducted at Likas Square Complex, in Likas here more than a week ago and SAPP Youth members who rushed to the scene upon been tipped off uncovered several discrepancies in the registration method as well as the targeted group identified as new voters.

The SAPP Youth members also discovered that most of the voters were found to be originally from Pitas, Kudat, although some of them are currently residing in Taman Bukit Keramat here.

They also claimed that when asked for the rationale behind the registration of Taman Bukit Keramat residents at the complex, the EC officials on duty explained that the exercise was on the instructions of a certain State Minister.

They (SAPP Youth members) also said they were told that those who registered as voters received a payment of RM200.

Wong said Mohd Idrus also agreed that the location where the group of registered voters was purportedly from - Taman Bukit Keramat - has no housing. There are only three old detached houses in that particular area with only one house occupied and the other two empty.

Mohd Idrus also mentioned to them that if this were the case the transfer of the new voters to Api-Api constituency from that area would not be registered, he claimed.

Meanwhile, Wong claimed the objective of such dubious exercise appears to be to increase the number of bumiputera voters in Api-Api and reduce the Chinese community's influence in the election.