Pakatan: Selangor should not take part if electoral roll is not cleaned up

(The Star) – The Pakatan Rakyat council has recommended that Selangor not participate in the coming general election should the Election Commission fail to clean up the state’s electoral roll.

 

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the matter had been relayed to Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim and the recommendation was made because of alleged massive movement of voters in Selangor.

Pakatan claims that as of December 2011, there are an additional 500,000 voters in Selangor.

“Until and unless the electoral roll in Selangor undergoes a total clean-up, the state should not take part in the elections if it is called any time soon.

“We want the EC to ensure there is no attempt to cheat, and to clean up the electoral roll,” he said after chairing the council meeting here yesterday.

On whether the same recommendation of not to participate in the elections was made to other Pakatan-held states, Anwar said the matter had not been decided, adding that the coalition was “more concerned with the state of affairs in Selangor”.

He said the Opposition was disappointed that the EC had not cleaned up the electoral roll.

In an immediate response, EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said the number of electorates had increased in all the states because of the intensive campaign initiated together with all the po-litical parties to encourage eligi- ble Malaysians to register as voters.

“So, why must he (Anwar) single out Selangor?

“As a result of the intensive campaigning, we have managed to reduce the number of eligible Malaysians who have yet to register as voters from more than four million previously to more than two million,” he said.