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EC admits votes cast using others’ IC in Permatang Pauh, but says ‘not serious'

PERMATANG PAUH (Malaysia) — The Election Commission (EC) acknowledged today cases where people used other voters’ identity cards to cast their ballots in the Permatang Pauh by-election, but brushed it off as a “not serious” matter.

Voters registering at the polling station, Penanti, Penang, May 7, 2015. Photo: The Malay Mail Online

Voters registering at the polling station, Penanti, Penang, May 7, 2015. Photo: The Malay Mail Online

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PERMATANG PAUH (Malaysia) — The Election Commission (EC) acknowledged today cases where people used other voters’ identity cards to cast their ballots in the Permatang Pauh by-election, but brushed it off as a “not serious” matter.

EC chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said there are bound to be cases of voters losing their identity cards at one point and someone picking it up and using their identities to cast their ballots.

“I wouldn’t consider it serious enough to declare the election results invalid because there are probably less than 10 such cases for more than 70,000 voters here,” Mr Aziz said in a press conference at the Multimedia and Communications Ministry’s Media Centre here.

The EC chief denied the presence of “phantom voters” in the election, saying instead that it may be considered unethical for a person to use someone else’s identity card and to vote on their behalf, but it is “not serious”.

He told those who have such complaints to report it to the EC and the EC will report it to the police for further action.

“We need to check and investigate such cases,” he said.

Mr Aziz said if the people transported here held valid identity cards that are registered to vote in the constituency, they are not phantom voters at all.

The EC is aiming for an 80 per cent turnout and expressed hopes that the trend of a 10 per cent voters turnout every hour would continue on till 5pm.

As at 12pm, a total of 30,865 people have voted, which is at 43 per cent.

Mr Aziz said it is common for voter turnout to drop after 12pm and so, if the 10 per cent hourly trend were to drop after this, they might not reach their targeted 80 per cent.

He also dismissed suggestions that having the polling day on a weekday could affect voter turnout.

“We have found that there is no correlation between polling day on a weekday and the number of voters turnout because it can be on a Sunday, with good weather and no traffic jam and yet voters turnout were low,” he said.

Low voter turnout has been one of the main concerns for PKR, which is defending the parliamentary seat in a four corner fight with Barisan Nasional, PRM and an independent candidate. THE MALAY MAIL ONLINE

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