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Malaysian opposition claims existence of 200,000 fake
voters
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 (AFP) - Malaysia's opposition alliance on
Saturday claimed that at least 200,000 voters in upcoming polls were
holders of fake identity cards, and called for an immediate probe by the
authorities.
The Barisan Alternatif (Alternative Front) said the suspected fake
voters were discovered in 12 of the 193 parliamentary constituencies where
polls would be held Monday.
"Barisan Alternatif has noticed that there are over 200,000 voters
which we suspect of using false identity cards in the list of voters
issued on January 1999 to be used in the coming elections," said Mohamad
Hatta Ramli, a spokesman for the opposition alliance.
Mohamad Hatta, an election candidate representing the fundamentalist
Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), a key component of the alliance, told a news
conference that suspected illegal voters were found also in Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad's Kubang Pasu constituency in northern Kedah state.
He claimed the fake voters were discovered after party workers screened
half the voters' list to be used in the elections.
"If the whole list had been screened, they would have identified more,
maybe half a million," he said.
More than nine million voters have registered as voters for the current
elections.
Asking the Election Commission to investigate the matter, Mohamad Hatta
said he believed there might be many lawsuits over discrepancies after the
elections.
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