Dubious voters: Warisan to lodge formal complaint
Published on: Friday, February 09, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: Parti Warisan Sabah will lodge a formal complaint to the Election Commission (EC) over its claim of 5,000 dubious voters and is prepared to do so next week.Sabah EC director Rohiman Rahia had urged Warisan to file an official objection after its secretary-general Loretto Padua Jr claimed about 5,000 voters had been transferred to different polling centres.Padua said the party's data unit discovered the transfer of the voters while screening the 2017 fourth-quarter supplementary electoral roll put on public display for two weeks until Jan 31.ADVERTISEMENT "We will do a formal complaint, no worry," he told reporters when met during Warisan's Chinese New Year walkabout in Donggongon town, Penampang, Thurday."In fact, we are ready. Maybe we'll do it next week. But we are glad the EC replied to our statement," he added.In his statement on Monday, Padua said Warisan found several issues that made the validity of the 2017 fourth-quarter supplementary electoral roll questionable. He said the records showed an alarming rate of applications from voters changing their addresses. ADVERTISEMENT "The parliamentary constituency of Sepanggar has 932 voters changing their addresses, followed by Putatan (651), Kota Kinabalu (429) and Kalabakan (426)."It is difficult to trace their new locations before the supplementary electoral roll is gazetted by the Election Commission.
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"What is certain, however, is that we have found 30,000 voters transferred since 2014 all across Sabah," he said.In response, Rohiman called on the public including Warisan to come forward and file a formal objection "to anything they are not satisfied with"."They can fill an application form and list the names of the voters they are objecting to. We will investigate by calling up both the person objecting and the voters, and what they are objecting about," he said.Meanwhile, Warisan treasurer general Terrence Siambun said the party is the first to launch a mobile application called "Perjuangan Rakyat" (People's Cause) in Sabah in its efforts to get closer to the people, especially the tech-savvy younger generation."It is actually to communicate with them one-on-one. Our target is to connect with the generation-Y," said the Moyog state assemblyman.The app also enables the public to contribute cash for the party's cause in a transparent way."The rakyat can help through donations in a proper way. When I say proper (it means) the people donate money straight to us and not through the backdoor."Padua urged the public to download the app, adding Warisan will hold the official launching of the application soon.The application allows users to keep abreast with issues raised by the party through news reports and videos, and also make contributions to Warisan. Users can switch between the Malay, English and Chinese languages.On Upko's statement that it would field young candidates to contest in Penampang, Siambun took a jibe at the Barisan Nasional component party, saying "it was about time to give way to young faces"."We hope they (Upko) do because all this while they have been fielding the same old faces. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Some of them have served three to five terms," he said.Upko acting president Wilfred Madius Tangau had said the party intended to field the best candidate to regain Penampang, pointing out they wanted "young, vibrant and energetic" candidates who would be able to speak for the people of Penampang.