PETALING JAYA: Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) has called on the Election Commission (EC) to make it compulsory for voters in Sabah to bring their birth certificates and identification cards with them when casting their ballots on polling day.
Penampang GRS chief Kenny Chua said this was to prevent dubious votes amid growing concerns of an unusual spike of new voters in Sabah.
“One way we think we can stop dubious votes is by having the EC set a condition for voters to bring along their birth certificates as supporting documents (to verify their identity),” he said in a statement.
Yesterday, FMT reported that a 54% rise in the number of registered voters in Sabah had sparked suspicions of another “Projek IC”, an infamous programme in the 1990s for the systematic granting of citizenship to migrants.
Several political parties questioned the increase in numbers, particularly because the voter roll in some constituencies is more than 70% higher than in 2018.
Among them was Sabah Barisan Nasional chairman Bung Moktar Radin who, on Friday, asked the EC to explain the rise in the number of registered voters in Sabah, to 50% more than in 2018.
The most recent electoral roll issued by the EC shows that the number of voters in Sabah had risen to 1.64 million people from 1.06 million just four years ago.
Chua said the spike in the number of voters was cause for concern, given that there had been reports of undocumented migrants being issued birth certificates and identification cards.
While making voters present their birth certificates might only be a temporary solution, Chua said it would discourage dubious votes from being cast.
