MELAKA: A registered postal voter for the Alor Gajah parliamentary seat has allegedly cast both a postal vote and later a physical vote, claims Melaka Pakatan Harapan chairman Adly Zahari.
Adly - Pakatan’s candidate for the Alor Gajah seat - claimed the incident occurred at the Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) early voting centre on Tuesday (Nov 15), adding that he was informed of this by a polling agent there.
“Registered postal voters are not allowed to cast their votes physically at early voting centres, in accordance with the Elections (Postal Voting) Regulations.
“I was also informed that the individual had already cast the vote via post and later physically, which is a clear offence under the Election Offences Act,” he told a press conference here on Wednesday (Nov 16).
Adly said the polling agent also brought up the matter with the voting centre’s chief.
He said however that the chief was unaware of the said voter’s status as they did not have the list of postal voters for the constituency.
“After constant pressure (from the polling agent), the centre’s chief contacted an Election Commission (EC) officer for the list of postal voters registered there.
“Following this, the chief confirmed the individual was indeed a registered postal voter for the constituency,” he said.
Adly added that the voting centre chief also gave assurance that the said vote would be identified based on the ballot’s serial number and removed from the ballot box when the vote count begins.
“I have also asked the said polling agent to lodge a police report at the Alor Gajah police headquarters, with its officials saying that they took the matter seriously and have already called up the said voter.
“The main question, however, is how the list of postal voters was not removed from the list of those eligible for early voting,” he said.
“If there are no explanations or improvements from EC on this, this may reoccur come polling day (Nov 19),” he said.
When contacted, an official from Melaka police confirmed the report was lodged at Durian Tunggal police station at about 3.45pm on Tuesday (Nov 15).
