Computer programmer Ong Guan Sin, 37, was intrigued when he heard that some postal voters on the electoral rolls are registered in two different constituencies.
So he decided to put his expertise to work.
Ong, who described himself as a concerned citizen, developed a programme which could determine whether the Election Commission’s (EC) online database of postal voters are registered in two places.
He obtained 563 randomly selected military identification numbers from the EC and run them through his programme.
Postal voting is presently restricted to military troops, policemen and teachers who are based far away from their constituencies.
What Ong found shocked him. Almost half of them have 'twin' voters registered in another parliamentary constituency
Ong said that a total of 278, or 49.3 percent, of the 563 postal voters are registered in two different constituencies.
While the original voters and their twins share the name , their military identity card number is slightly different, where all had an additional '0' in their original six-digit IC number.
So too are the constituencies they are to vote.
In most instances, the year of birth of the voters are identical. In some other instances, however, they were different.
While the added numeral ‘0' may at first seem like a simple administrative mistake or technical glitch which could explain the duplication of the postal voters’ names, Ong however said that the parliamentary constituencies of these postal voters should not have been different. [See full list]
'Blatant effort of fraud'
A check by Malaysiakini with the EC’s online electoral roll confirmed that one Shamsuddin Jusoh, 52, of military identification number T0705196, for example, was registered to vote in the Pekan parliamentary constituency in Pahang.
Another Shamsuddin Jusoh, also 52, of military identification number T705196 was registered to vote in Setiawangsa, Kuala Lumpur.
Checks on several other postal voters’ names on the list of 563 provided by Ong were confirmed to have been repeated but registered as voters in different parliamentary constituencies.
"It is only blatant effort of fraud that can produce this," alleged the programmer when contacted today.
"Not only have they made the postal voting system intimidating and non-anonymous, they have gone one step further by doubling the postal voters," he added.
Ong urged the EC to explain the discovery of multiple registration.
On Thursday, it was reported that Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel) had discovered a total of 195 incidences of postal voters who have been registered several times under the same first and last names and born in the same year.
Mafrel chairperson Abdul Malek Hussein revealed that there are 46 ‘Ismail Ibrahims’ - all born in the year 1962 but registered as having different IC and living in 46 different localities - who have been registered to vote in various places throughout the country.
Similarly, 14 Ismail Jusohs, all born in the year 1966 but hold different identity card numbers (IC) and registered as living in 14 different localities, have also been slated to vote.
There may perhaps be many Ismails whose last names are also Ibrahim or Jusoh, said Malek.
"(But) that’s why we need mathematicians to help us come up with the (statistical) probability of male voters with same name and date of birth. What is the statistical probability of that?" he asked.
"We’re not saying all these Ismail Ibrahims are the same person. We’re just saying this is an issue that (leads to) serious doubt," he said further.
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