'EC has broken law by shifting Khalid's voting zone and 31,294 other voters too'

The Election Commission (EC) has committed "a serious offence" under Election Act 1958 to shift Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim’s voting constituency from Petaling Jaya Selatan to Lembah Pantai, said PKR today.

Showing documents retrieved from the EC website today, PKR vice-president Fuziah Salleh said the area division states that changes can be made onto a voter’s locality.

However, she added, such an exercise must be confined within the voter’s particular state and parliamentary constituency.

"The EC is disallowed at all to shift a voter beyond his or her original state or parliamentary voting constituency without the person’s knowledge.

"And this is what has happened to Khalid," Fuziah (right) said at a press conference in Petaling Jaya.

"They are using a legal method to do something which is illegal."

By shifting Khalid to a new parliamentary constituency, the Kuantan MP said the EC is already performing a delineation exercise.

"The delineation exercise has always been used by EC to gerrymander. The exercise is due, but it cannot be done without two-thirds consent of Parliament according to the federal constitution," she said.

Fuziah alleged that the apparent delineation exercise does not only affect Khalid alone but also some 31,294 voters nationwide.
“Our investigations show that these voters had not changed their identification card addresses between 2008 and 2009, but they were shifted to other state or parliament voting zones.

“The (EC) has violated the basic rights of voters, they just are doing what they like.

“We urge the EC to come clean and reply to our concerns. If not, the top leadership in the commission should resign en masse,” Fuziah said.

EC's boundary 'correction'

Khalid, who had registered as a voter at Jalan 16/2, Section 16, Petaling Jaya, was puzzled by the latest attempt of the EC to shift his voting zone to the neighbouring Lembah Pantai constituency, an area which falls under Kuala Lumpur.

The EC claimed that the shift was caused a boundary correction exercise, but the MB feared that there had been tampering.

Fuziah revealed today that some 69 voters on Jalan 16/2 alone had been moved to the Lembah Pantai constituency.

However, she is optimistic that the shift would not disqualify Khalid from remaining as menteri besar.

“He is still qualified because his identity card (IC) address is still Pasir Tuntung, Kuala Selangor. The legal requirement is based on the IC,” she said.

Meanwhile, PKR vice-president Tian Chua has condemned the EC for not delineating voting zones based on administrative borders in the first place.

He said the peculiar practice has led to the need for boundary correction exercises now.

“But I would like to know why an Umno Youth leader came to know about the shifting of Khalid’s zone in the first place,” he said, referring to Seputeh Umno Youth chief Mohd Razlan Mohd Rafii, who posted about the issue on his blog recently.