EC: Popular votes does not make you government

The Election Commission (EC) stressed this today, saying that the statement by Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that the Opposition block should form the new government was erroneous.

EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof also said allegation by Anwar that there were no improvements by the EC in the latest election was a “big lie that confuses the rakyat, and is mere slander.”

Abdul Aziz said that according to election laws of Malaysia, “BN has already been confirmed as won in the 13th General Election and is able to form the federal government.”

He said this is true despite the higher 5,623,984 votes Pakatan obtained than BN’s 5,237,699, as the electoral system in Malaysia is based on simple majority and is based on constituency representation system since the first election in 1959.

“According to that system, the candidate who wins in the contest of the election, even by one vote, is the winning candidate of that election.”

“Based on the same principle, the party that has the rights to form a government whether in local or federal level, which is the party which gets the most seats, even with a majority of just one seat.”

“This electoral system is called the First Past The Post system,” said Abdul Aziz.

On eight issues that was brought up by Anwar, Abdul Aziz said the EC’s response on the electoral roll used in GE13 is that it is the roll that has been gazetted and has gone through a thorough cleaning process, including checking through the online nationality and address records from the National Registration Department’s database.

“The electoral roll that was used in GE13 is the cleanest electoral roll that the EC can prepare,” he said.

Abdul Aziz also said that because the electoral roll uses the unique 12-number IC number as an identifier, it was impossible to have duplicate names in the roll

“Through this registration system, no one who is not Malaysian, whether he is from Bangladesh, Indonesia, China or India can be registered as a voter.”

“It’s impossible to include additional voter names after the voter roll has been gazetted.

“Therefore the assumption and allegation that there are 40,000 Bangladeshi nationals that has been brought in to vote in the recent GE13 is baseless and slanderous.”

Abdul Aziz stressed that the usage of indelible ink was only an additional mechanism in the voting process to prevent doble voting by irresponsible parties.

He said that the main mechanism to check the voter identity and make sure voters don’t vote more than once is in the electoral namelist in every voting centre on Polling Day.