Wednesday, February 22, 2012

‘Extra postal votes could affect Pakatan’, Army wives should vote via the normal process, says DAP assemblyman


TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2012 - 17:46
by Andrew Sagayam (Malay Mail)

NEW NAMES: Lau shows the 400 listed postal voters at the Selangor State Assembly Shah Alam Annex — Pic: Shahir Omar

SHAH ALAM: The extra 400 postal votes in the Kuala Kubu Baru state seat, now held by Barisan Nasional, could affect Pakatan Rakyat’s chances in the next general election.

DAP Selangor organising secretary and Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San, who is looking after the constituency, said 33 of the 400 new postal voters were spouses of army staff.

“We have filed an official complaint as the wives of soldiers are not on duty like their husbands and can cast their votes via the normal process,” he said.

In the 2008 general election, the BN won the seat with a 448-vote majority.

“This will definitely affect Pakatan’s chances of winning the seat as we fair badly when it comes to postal votes,” Lau said at a press conference at the Selangor State Secretariat here yesterday.

“In the past, the state seat had been won and lost by a majority of between 400 and 1,700 votes.”

He added that the new postal voters were from the 4th Royal Signals Regiment camp.

Lau said that the complaint regarding the wives of the soldiers had been submitted to the Election Commission (EC) on Feb 10.

“The EC officer who recorded the complaint assured us that the matter would be investigated,” he said.

He also cautioned voters to check their records and voting status to make sure they would be casting their votes at the right places.

“Be careful, we cannot deny anyone’s right to vote but we have to check if it is valid,” he said.

“In the 10th Sarawak election, last year, I had the opportunity to look at the list of army personnel who were voting ... all of them had the Defence Ministry in Jalan Padang Tembak, KL, as their address, which was peculiar.”

DAP’s Kuala Kubu Baru coordinator for new villages Chng Boon Lai and Hulu Selangor councillor Law Suet Peng were present at the press conference.

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