KOTA KINABALU: The issue on the surge of new voters in Sabah has taken a new twist following allegations that they were registered as “Malays”, claim Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.
This led Jeffrey, who is also Star Sabah President, to ask if there was something going on that Sabahans have been unaware of.“I’ve been informed that these new voters were registered as Malays,” said Jeffrey in a statement, Thursday.
“The question is, are there Malays in Sabah? If so who are they? How come suddenly we have thousands of them?
”He said it becomes even more suspicious when the number of these so-called ‘Malays’ are unusually huge.He insisted that the authorities carry out an immediate investigation on the matter.
“Sabahans are furious right now. If there is any truth in the allegations, they fear that they will be outnumbered by non-Sabahans who subsequently will vote for the next government,” he said.
Except for Chinese and a very small population of Indians, Sabahans is identified based on their ethnicity but not as “Malay” which is from Malaya.
Earlier, Jeffrey expressed shock over the “unusual and suspicious” spike in voter numbers in Keningau parliamentary constituency, which is the heartland of the Kadazan Dusun Murut (KDM) community in Sabah.
He said the number of voters in Keningau parliamentary was 51,777 in 2018 but this had jumped to 87,371 in 2022, making it a 70.7 per cent increase!He was informed the number of under-18s in Keningau parliamentary was less than 8,000.
He found it puzzling how the number could increase over 30,000 in less than five years and suspected something was wrong.
Earlier, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee suspected the surge reflected the high number of dubious voters – no thanks to the Project IC scandal.
Yong said based on a preliminary review of the 2022 election roll, many of the new voters were aged above 30 while some in their 60s.
He also found it suspicious to see so many middle-aged people as newly registered voters.
— EDITOR