Thursday, August 18, 2011

EC says 'James Bond voters' is human error


Following Malaysiakini's report yesterday that several voters in the electoral roll have MyKad numbers that do not exist, the Election Commission (EC) today explained that they are caused by human error.An EC officer contacted Malaysiakini this afternoon to clarify that the MyKad numbers were wrongly entered into the electoral roll.“Thank you for pointing out the mistake. There are 17 such voters (in the electoral roll),” said the officer who declined to be named.

Yesterday a PAS supporter named 'Pengundi PAS Kedah' found that three Kedah voters, dubbed 'James Bond voters', have MyKad numbers of which their seventh and eighth digits are listed as '00'. These two digits are used to indicate the place of birth of the MyKad holder. According to the National Registration Department (NRD), the code '00' does not exist.The EC officer clarified that their code should be '02' which means they are born in Kedah.

For example, he said, the clerk had entered an extra '1' in the MyKad number of Rosmadi bin Chik, 801111002544, which causes the original code '02' to become the eighth and ninth digits.
Similar mistakes occurred in the MyKad numbers of Hasrullizam bin Halim (800604002563) and Shapiza binti Ghazali (811020002568), he added.

Out of the three voters dubbed 'James Bond voters', both Rosmadi and Hasrullizam had been deleted from the electoral roll when Malaysiakini checked the EC online verification system this morning. 

Multiple checking website launched last month

As for Shapiza, the EC's old version website showed her name still exists in the electoral roll whereas the new multiple checking website showed the opposite.The EC launched the multiple checking website last month. It enables user to check the polling details of more than one person at the same time by entering multiple identification numbers. The old version only allows one entry at one time.The commission has been 'cleaning' the electoral roll by amending and deleting its content after various flaws were highlighted by the media.

According to the EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Yusof, this was done on a daily basis based on daily official information from the National Registration Department (NRD) through the Agency Link-up System (Alis).This action was disputed by electoral reform coalition Bersih 2.0, which pointed out that those irregularities are not clerical errors that can be simply amended at the EC's whims and fancies.

Nonetheless, it seems that the EC's knee-jerk 'cleaning', which was only done after the irregularities were reported, cannot ensure the integrity of the electoral roll as new flaws are being unearthed almost every day.Today, the same PAS supporter found another two voters with code '00' in their MyKad numbers. They are:

1. Rasimah binti Ahmad
MyKad no: 650309007554
Voting constituencies: Pantai Merdeka (state), Sungai Petani (Parliament)

2. Rozila binti Abdullah @ Romli
MyKad no: 781223002547
Voting constituencies: Tanjong Dawai (state), Merbok (Parliament)

A check with the EC online verification system this afternoon showed that these names still remain intact in the electoral roll. 


Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/173398

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