PRESS
RELEASE
Kota Marudu, 21 June 2001
PBS
: Disclose details of Likas roll cleansing
Kota
Marudu, Thurs. - Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) today urged
the Election Commission (EC) to disclose the details of how
it plans to clean the Likas electoral roll prior to conducting
the by-election.
Deputy
president, Dr Maximus Ongkili, said the party was heartened
by the EC’s undertaking to clean the Likas roll before proceeding
to conduct the by-election after accepting the verdict of
the High Court that the present roll was polluted with phantom
and unqualified voters.
Speaking
to Tandek PBS leaders after chairing the division’s monthly
meeting this morning, he said while the party welcomed the
EC’s assurance the party was disappointed that until now no
details had been disclosed as to how it planned to clean the
tainted roll.
"Surely,
the EC cannot simply and quietly expunge names from the existing
roll.
"It
must set a time period for cleaning up, outline the procedures
involved, open the roll for objection and submission of anomalies,
and provide for an appeal before the roll is re-gazetted for
official use of the by-election. Above all there must be transparency
in the whole process," he stressed.
Ongkili
argued that the EC must consider and study in detail the remaining
5,000-odd dubious names objected annually by PBS and still
found in the Likas 2000 roll.
"These
included the objections in List A which were turned down by
the EC’s registration officer in 1998, a decision invalidated
by the recent High Court decision," he claimed.
On
entire Sabah electoral roll, the Bandau MP repeated a call
he made in the last sitting of parliament that that the EC
should construct an entirely new roll by conducting a fresh
registration of voters for the whole state.
"The
High Court judge for the Likas petition mentioned that ‘it’s
only the tip of the iceberg.’ We have provided lists of dubious
voters annually to the EC in the form of objections during
the annual registration of voters for many constituencies
but like the Likas case they were turned down by the Commission."
Ongkili
said there was no doubt that the electoral rolls for many
constituencies were polluted, adding "they should be
thrown into the sea and replaced with new ones through a carefully
supervised, fresh registration of voters."
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