AN overwhelming voter turnout is the only way to beat the rampant “cheating” in the 14th general election, said electoral watchdogs Bersih 2.0 and Engage.

Reuters reported the groups as saying today the electoral roll for the May 9 polls contains 10 major irregularities, including the re-registration of dead voters and two million voters with no address on record, raising concerns of fraud.

A joint study of the GE14 electoral roll also found 500,000 cases of voters registered with the same address, and a voter born in 1897 – making them 121 years old.

An example given in the study are numerous cases of multiple people being registered at the same address in Bagan Datuk, whose incumbent is caretaker deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

“Our conclusion is that there are symptoms of a deliberate plan… (an) action to massively move voters to impact elections in marginal constituencies,” said Bersih official Chan Tsu Chong.

In a joint statement, the groups called into question the legitimacy of the elections, and warned that “these preliminary findings are just the tip of the iceberg”.

The report said the Election Commission did not respond to requests for comments.

In an email response, a Barisan Nasional spokesman said the findings of the study should not be taken as facts, as Bersih is a “functioning arm of the opposition”.

“Bersih has every reason to undermine confidence in the vote, so that afterwards, it can complain that the election wasn’t fair.”

Critics, including members of the opposition, have protested against the EC’s recent redrawing of electoral boundaries, saying the practice favoured the ruling BN coalition.

The government and EC have said the re-delineation exercise was carried out independently.

Some 15 million Malaysians are registered to cast their ballots in GE14, which will see a showdown between caretaker prime minister Najib Razak’s BN and Pakatan Harapan, the main opposition bloc led by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Public anger has swelled over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd financial scandal, the RM2.6 billion banked into Najib’s personal account, as well as the goods and services tax, resulting in growing support for PH. – May 3, 2018.