KUALA LUMPUR – The Election Commission (EC)’s electoral roll system had inadvertently registered 41 prisoners and five mentally ill patients under its first-time registration category at five locations.
According to the newly released second series of the 2019 Auditor-General’s (AG) Report today, these registrations were made when all 41 prisoners were serving their sentences and the five patients were undergoing treatment at their respective hospitals.
“The auditing team has verified and reviewed the information of the prisoners involved on February 23 at the headquarters of the Prisons Department.
“A verification was made on the court warrant of each prisoner that was stored in the executive information system module under the offender management information system.
“An audit found that all 41 prisoners were in prison on the date the voter registration was made in the Year-Round Voter Registration System (SPPST).
“Apart from that, an audit was also made on the ward admission records submitted by HBUK Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta (HBUK) and Hospital Permai Johor Baru (HPJB), where it was discovered that the five patients were still admitted on the date the voter registration was made in the SPPST.
“However, it is noted that a patient at HPJB was a patient who received cancer treatment and not psychiatric treatment as per the ward’s admission record,” the report stated.
AG Datuk Nik Azman Nik Abdul Majid said the EC was unable to identify the real cause behind the application of these individuals while in detention and treatment.
“A cross-checking mechanism with the relevant agencies had not been established to ensure the accuracy of voter data.
“Data collection (entry key) of the application was not done properly.
“(As such,) the registration of voters who do not meet the eligibility requirements set by the federal constitution affects the integrity of the voter data.”
Among the other weaknesses identified by the AG in the report on the EC include the failure of EC officials to verify the identification numbers of 931, or 0.4%, of the 211,215 police and military personnel.
“The locality determination process for 24,467 (0.4%) of 6,310,578 voters took more than three months, that is, between three and 96 months.
“From those numbers, as many as 18,833 voters were included under the Additional Electoral Roll (DPT).”
The report also stated that a cross-check between Master Electoral Roll (DPI) data for the third quarter of 2019 (DPI ST3/2019) and records of MyKad holders in the National Registration Department (NRD) system on December 10, 2020, found that a total of 5,753 citizens who have been registered as dead under NRD records still exist, with no changes made in the DPI.
“A follow-up audit on DPI ST4/2020 found that the above findings had been acted upon following the discovery.” – The Vibes, September 28, 2021
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