EC urged to launch inquiry into transfer of military voters to shore up support for senior BN leaders.
The Election Commission (EC) should hold an inquiry to verify allegations that military voters were illegally shifted to constituencies of four senior Barisan Nasional leaders before the 14th general election, said DAP’s Lim Kit Siang today.
The administration under former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak was said to have illegally transferred military voters to shore up the support for Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi (former deputy prime minister and home minister), Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein (defence minister), Datuk Seri Ismail Sabry Yaakob (minister for rural and regional development) and Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam (health minister).
Last Wednesday, the Election Commission Chairman Azhar Azizan Harun said the EC is awaiting a full audit report by a special investigation committee on procurement, governance and finance in the Defence Ministry led by former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang appointed by the new Pakatan Harapan Government.
The Ambrin audit report had reported that EC officials were complicit in aiding the ministry in the transfer of military voters to camps built in Bera (Pahang), Segamat (Johor), Paloh (Johor) and Hutan Melintang (Perak) in time to be eligible to vote in the GE14.
“Such collusion of EC officials with the defence ministry to illegally and undemocratically shore up the support of Cabinet ministers in the ensuing 14th General Election was not only a flagrant abuse of power by the Najib government but an impermissible abuse of the democratic process,” Lim said in a statement.
“Zahid, Hishammuddin and Ismail Sabri should state whether they welcome an inquiry as to whether their election was unlawful, undemocratic, and should, therefore, be declared null and void,” he said.
Up until the 14th general election, military votes had typically favoured the ruling government.
Save for former MIC president Subramaniam, all three former ministers retained their seats in last year’s general election.