Election Commission (EC) must explain the sudden ‘fishy’ surge of 574,120 new voters in Sabah. The latest EC update revealed an astounding 574,120 new Malaysian voters across Sabah which is a whopping 53.9% increase compared to the GE14 on May 9, 2018 election four years ago when 1,064,686 were eligible to vote. This coming GE15, 1,689,387 Malaysians in Sabah will be able to cast their vote.
Ironically, it is in the interior areas that some of the biggest increases happened. And the increase happened between 2018 and 2020. Pensiangan, Sepanggar and Kota Marudu are three parliamentary constituencies with the most number of new voters compared to GE14 on May 9, 2018. All saw an average of more than 70 per cent increase in voters – not known to have occurred in Sabah in past elections. Five constituencies – Tuaran, Putatan, Ranau, Beluran and Kinabatangan – also recorded more than 50 per cent increase in new voters. And in the Kudat constituency more than 16,000 Indians are registered as voters. Since when did Kudat have 16,000 Indian voters?
EC must review who are the bodies or persons responsible in registering these voters.
Yes, we are all for the active registration of voters and high increase of the registration of voters but, looking at the trend in the past one or two years, the figure of 574,120 has cast a big doubt as to where all these new voters have come from. Could it be due to a high number of “dubious” MyKads holders? Based on a preliminary review of the 2022 electoral roll, many of the new voters were aged above 30 while some were in their 60s.
We hope the EC can be transparent on this issue and give an explanation and clarification over the sudden increase of voters. Of course, we know that the Undi18 is automatic registration and the increase in voters was not due to the implementation of Undi18 this year, but an astounding half a million new voters has cast a reasonable doubt.
The Undi18 in Sabah is made up of 127,582 voters in the 18 to 20 age group.
After 2013, all political parties are no longer allowed to assist EC in registering new voters, and we have not seen active participation or movement by EC in doing this exercise, then where are these new voters coming from?
We wouldn’t know if there are some wrongdoings in the automatic voter registration.
And in a tightly contested race this coming GE15 where there is a strong possibility of no clear winner in West Malaysia, and hence, the voting outcome in Sabah may have a great impact on who forms the Federal Government and who becomes the next Prime Minister of Malaysia. As such, “Dubious” MyKads holders should not be the ones determining who the next Prime Minister is going to be.
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