Some Chinese claim blocked from registering as voters
(MMO) – A few Chinese Malaysians have complained that they encountered objections against their registration as voters ahead of the next general election.
Such objections meant that they would have to attend Election Commission (EC) interviews at its office to prove that they are legal and eligible voters, failing which their registration as voters would be cancelled.
Elaine Lee, who posted a photo of several Chinese Malaysians flocking the EC office in Shah Alam on her Facebook page, said she had accompanied her 26-year-old boyfriend to the EC’s office after he received a letter that said his application to be a voter had been rejected.
Lee claimed that the office at the PKNS building was packed with both Malays and Chinese people when they arrived at about 11.15am Monday.
“But the Malays were there as the ‘pembantah’ (objectors) to the cases they filed against the ethnic Chinese,” she told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
Lee said her boyfriend received a letter about two weeks ago saying that someone had objected to his registration to become a voter at the Petaling Jaya Selatan parliamentary and Taman Medan state seats.
“The reason stated by the person who objected to my boyfriend’s application was that (he was a) ‘pemilih diragui’ (suspicious voter), which I find it to be very ridiculous because that was the only thing mentioned,” she said.
She said they had to wait for about three hours to meet the EC officer for not more than five minutes to approve her boyfriend’s registration.
Lee said she was also unsure of the objector’s whereabouts, further alleging that each objector had objected to multiple voters’ registrations.
She, however, added that most of the voters’ registrations were approved after the EC officers found insufficient evidence for the claims made by those who rejected the applications.
Lee said neither she nor her boyfriend questioned the person who objected to his application.
“I was so angry about [the incident] so I decided to share this on Facebook. I know a lot of people are getting objected,” she said.
Elaine Lee shows the letter her boyfriend received after his application to be voter in Petaling Jaya was objected.Another person, See Zhi Peng, also claimed a similar predicament at the EC’s office that morning.
“If I remember correctly, yes…old and young (mostly Chinese people) and the Malays who were sitting outside were the ‘pembantah’ (objectors).
“But this is my assumption because I didn’t go and ask them one by one whether they are the objectors,” the chambering student said.
