AROUND 5,000 voters in the Wangsa Maju federal seat have dubious details and PKR’s likely candidate, party treasurer Tan Yee Kew, is outraged over police inaction despite lodging reports on the matter.

Out this number, 1,429 names on the electoral roll did not reside in their registered addresses, the party discovered after conducting its own door-to-door inspection last year. 

Another 3,500 names appear to have given suspicious information to the National Registration Department, Tan said. For example, some were registered in clusters of more than eight, all to one address.

“The elections are coming. If (police) don’t intervene and investigate, this will compromise the election results,” she told The Malaysian Insight. 

The 5,000 voters could sway the election results as PKR won Wangsa Maju by 5,511 votes in 2013.

PKR lodged four police reports in Wangsa Maju and Setapak between August and November last year over the 1,429 registered voters, alleging that these individuals submitted false information to the Election Commission and NRD.

Tan said an investigation officer told the party last year that police went to a few of the addresses and verified that those registered at those addresses did not live there.

After that, no further action was taken, she said.

“Are there orders from above not to pursue the investigation?”

Wangsa Maju district police chief Mohammad Roy Suhaimi Sarif told The Malaysian Insight the reports were forwarded to the Election Commission for further action. 

He advised the complainant to check with the EC on the status of the reports. 

He acknowledged that he received letters from the complainant requesting feedback on the status of police investigation into the case.

“We replied. We told them that the case has been referred to the EC because only they have the list of voters,” Roy said.

The Malaysian Insight sent questions to EC chairman Hashim Abdullah based on Tan’s findings, but he has yet to respond.

7,000 ‘new’ voters

The discovery of the 5,000 dubious names was prompted by a massive influx of 12,000 new voters to the Wangsa Maju roll in the last two quarters of 2016.

Tan said the huge number prompted PKR to scrutinise the names more closely, leading them to conduct door-to-door inspections. This exercise also uncovered addresses at which more than eight voters were registered.

The massive number of new voters was baffling as more than half, or 7,000 names, were added because of a change of address, she said.

“There are no new township or factories, so why did 7,000 people suddenly decide to move to Wangsa Maju?”

Her team focused on addresses with more than eight names. This pattern was repeated in four areas: Taman Melati, Seksyen 1 Wangsa Maju, Gombak Utara and Wangsa Melati.

The team went knocking on doors to verify if the individuals registered lived there and discovered non-existent addresses.

“Some of the addresses don’t even exist. The police must investigate how did individuals with false addresses register as voters? Who are they? And where do they actually live?”

It is a crime for anyone to give a public servant false information, according to Section 177 of the Penal Code.

PKR will lodge a complaint with the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission this week if the Inspector-General of Police does not respond to an open letter she wrote last week.

Non-existent addresses

The Malaysian Insight went to Kg Puah and Seksyen 4 Wangsa Maju to check on some of the names and addresses given by Tan.

Noor Fazlin Rais Mohamad Rais, 21, said there is no house No. 642-6J in the kampung. Based on the electoral roll, 48 individuals were registered at 642-6J Jalan Kampung Puah Hulu, Kg Puah.

“There is 642-6 but no 642-6J,” she said.

Noor Fazlin, who has lived there for more than three years before the new names were added to the Wangsa Maju rolls in 2016, said she did not recognise the 48 names. Her neighbours who have lived there for two decades also said they did not recognise any name.

In Seksyen 4 Wangsa Maju, businessman Faizul Nazreen Yusof, 35, said he did not recognise eight Malay names purportedly registered at his home address.

“I grew up here. We only have three voters here: my mum, my sister and me.”

Tan first raised the alarm about the presence of phantom voters in Wangsa Maju last July.

She will likely to come up against MCA Wangsa Maju division chief Yew Teong Look in the 14th general election that must be held by August.

Yew was Wangsa Maju MP for one term (2004-2008), a seat Umno held between 1995 and 2004. 

PKR’s Wee Choo Keong, who became an independent in 2010, beat Yew to win the seat in 2008 by a slim majority of 150 votes.

In 2013, Wee was replaced by Tan Kee Kwong, who defeated Barisan Nasional’s Mohd Shafei Abdullah by 5,511 votes. – January 24, 2018.