How the EC is in cahoots with BN

In an effort to lend an air of credibility to itself, the Election Commission (EC) has announced that indelible ink will be used in the upcoming 13th general election.

But there is no reason to jump for joy just yet. A lot of hanky-panky can still go on undetected right until the day of polling itself. Listed below are several examples:

1. Name not in the voter rolls and therefore unable to vote – any perfectly eligible voter whose name is not in the voter rolls is totally helpless to do anything about it. They can lodge a complaint of course but by then the results of the polls are already secured.

2. Name transferred out to another locality or worse still to another state – this is also an inconvenient move for the eligible voter and will very well impede his ability to vote if his name is transferred, say from Kuala Lumpur to Perlis.

3. PKR’s Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh has revealed that nearly 600,000 names in Selangor have been moved or shifted about without the voters knowledge and these are only the ones detected!

Although indelible ink is a tremendous help in preventing multiple-voting, we are still back to square one if the eligible voters are unable to cast their vote due to hanky-panky in the voter rolls.

Although prior to polling day we can check to see that our names are not tampered with, anything can still happen on the day of voting itself. With instant and advance technology our names can be in the voter rolls today but vanish tomorrow on polling way. There is no surefire guarantee that our names will be 100% kept safe in the voter rolls.

4. The only way the Pakatan Rakyat can win the 13th general election is with overwhelming support from the rural masses and from Sabahans and Sarawakians. This is because due to gerrymandering by EC, many small seats have been created in the rural areas.

This is called the ‘Voters-per-seat Formula’. For instance, the parliament seat of Batu in Kuala Lumpur has over 100,000 voters. Compare this to the rural areas where many seats have less than 10,000 voters. This means that 100,000 can only give one seat to the opposition if the opposition wins in Batu whereas in the rural areas 100,000 voters can already contribute 10 seats.

This also shows that more weight or power is given to the rural seats as even with a few thousand voters, the rural folk have already one parliament seat compared to the city folk who need big numbers to get just one parliament seat. This unfair method of manipulation by EC has helped BN to win all along.

5. Besides playing around with the ‘Voters-per-seat Formula’, the EC can also move voters in a strategic manner. For example the Parliament seat of Shah Alam held by PAS’ Khalid Samad. EC can move the Chinese voters to Klang which is held by DAP’s Charles Santiago. In this way, BN regains Shah Alam. Forget about Klang, never mind.

Next, the EC can also move the Chinese voters from the PAS seat of Titiwangsa to Cheras which is held by DAP. In this way, BN regains Titiwangsa. Forget about Cheras as it is impossible for BN to win in Cheras anyway.

EC’s dubious tactics

By transferring out the Chinese to areas where BN finds impossible to win, they will regain seats lost to the opposition and those seats that BN cannot win we will notice that the opposition has won by a very margin, for instance Seputeh (won by DAP’s Teresa Kok by a margin of 36,000), Kepong and Cheras (also won by DAP with large margins). This is a bad sign as it indicates that something is afoot.

6. Another of EC’s dubious tactics is the demarcation of boundaries beyond rhyme or reason. Again, several examples:-

• Parliament seat of Batu in Kuala Lumpur. This is supposed to be a KL Federal Territory seat but it has been extended beyond Pasar Borong Selayang right up to Taman Selayang Jaya in Selayang, Selangor. In fact it overlaps with Selayang’s Parliament seat in Selangor.

• Parliament seat of Kepong in Kuala Lumpur. This is also a KL Federal Territory seat which has entered into Selayang, Selangor and overlaps with the Selayang Parliament seat as well.

• The third example also involving a KL Federal Territory seat is the Parliament seat of Titiwangsa which has been extended right up to Taman Chempaka in Selangor.

All those seats are geographically weird in nature and this is done to include in Malay voters who are known to favour BN. However, in the 12th general election in 2008, many urban Malays voted for the opposition. Knowing this, Umno is now frightening the Malays that they will be wiped-out if Pakatan comes to power.

This is to prevent the Malays from voting for Pakatan. The Malays must remember that PAS is also a Malay party and PKR is Malay-based, thus there is no way the Malays will be wiped out if they give overwhelming support to Pakatan. It is only Umno that will be wiped-out!

Therefore, it can be seen that due to EC’s shenanigans, it is the rural voters that hold massive power to swing the election and decide who stays in Putrajaya.

Together with the civil service, teachers, police and the armed forces which are BN’s vote bank, the rural vote which encompasses the settlers of Felda, Felcra and their kith and kin and those in connection with them are more than enough to ensure that BN stays in Putrajaya.

Mind you, the rural vote includes those in the Sabah and Sarawak interiors which have too many small seats and all these small seats contribute to BN’s Parliament seat count as well.

Truly, the 13th general election is going to be the biggest and dirtiest election battle in history, indelible ink notwithstanding. Indeed we are living in interesting and exciting times.

Will the rakyat vote in Pakatan Rakyat to usher in a new era of change for the better or will we wake up to the same old boring BN with corruption stories day in day out the day after the election results are announced?

We are certainly on the threshold of a great historic moment, greater than the fall of the Berlin Wall, will the rakyat rise to the occasion?

Selena Tay is a FMT columnist.