KOTA KINABALU: Voters should bring their birth certificates on polling day to prove their identities, says a GRS leader in Penampang.
Kenny Chua said this requirement should be set by the Election Commission (EC) to prevent dubious people from casting votes.
"The issue about the unusual spike of new voters in Sabah is something that the people are very worried about,” he said in a statement, Monday (Oct 24).
"So, one way we think we can stop dubious voters from voting is by asking the EC to set a condition for voters to bring along their birth certificate as supporting documents," he said.
Chua said by the looks of this new spike in the electoral roll, an identity card is not enough to prove one’s citizenship.
He pointed out that the issue about the controversial Projek IC has caused Sabahans to question whether an identity card was enough to prove a person’s identity as genuine Sabahans.
However, he said the call, if it was ever to be executed by EC at all, would not be a total solution to ensure that the current electoral system was clean of dubious voters.
Chua said there had been many disturbing reports about the issuance of documents to illegal immigrants highlighted by the media, one being on the arrest of three individuals including a National Registration Department officer in Semporna in 2019 for alleged issuance of birth certificates and MyKad to illegal immigrants.
"What we can do now is to at least stop these individuals from voting and we hope the EC can consider," he said.
It was recently reported that there are almost 600,000 new voters in the Sabah electoral roll.
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor had asked the EC to clarify and explain this spike by Tuesday (Oct 25).
