Kota Kinabalu: Village chiefs were exploited by certain quarters as far back as the eighties to attest to the residential status of non-locals infiltrating into the Kawang constituency.

Former Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) Deputy Chief Minister, Datuk Ariah Tengku Ahmad, who vouched for this, said the matter was brought to her attention after she had become the Kawang Assemblywoman in 1986.

According to her, village leaders from Kg Tengah, Kg Laut and Kg Anak Somboi were given blank forms to certify and sign with the attestation that they knew the persons-to-be and that they resided in their respective villages.

What aroused their suspicion was that the names and other particulars of the persons-to-be were not stated in the forms, and this could lead to abuse.

"They became worried and came to my residence in Penampang to complain to me because they were my strong supporters. But what about other villages in the constituency? Maybe the same thing had happened to unsuspecting village chiefs, so I was not informed about it.

"It was clear that the forms were to be used in future to enable illegal immigrants to procure identification documents by virtue of their fake residential status in Kawang and thus become Malaysian citizens," Ariah pointed out.

The village chiefs surrendered about 70 blank forms to her, instead of returning them to the party concerned, and she eventually destroyed them.

Meanwhile, Ariah said there was also a lot of hanky-panky in getting foreigners to vote in general elections, using the identity cards of genuine Malaysian citizens who had passed away.

A glaring example is that of her late younger brother, Leonard Pritchard, who died in the late sixties but his name was not removed from the Kawang electoral rolls until the nineties after Ariah raised a hue and cry over the matter. Pritchard was a former employee of the now-defunct Sabah Padi Board.

According to her, an unknown person, believed to be an illegal immigrant, had voted in the 1986 and 1990 State elections, using Pritchard's IC.

"Apparently, the person cast his ballot at the Kg Limputong polling centre in Papar. When I discovered this, I told the Election Commission (SPR) in Papar to take my brother's name out from the electoral rolls but they ignored me. I told them that Leonard had been dead for more than 10 years but somebody was voting under his (Leonard's) name.

"It happened again in the 1990 State Election. This time I personally lodged a report with the authority concerned in the Papar District Office. I protested and requested that action be taken to delete my brother's name from the electoral rolls," she recalled.

Ariah said efforts were made to trace the whereabouts of the "mystery voter" but to no avail.

Since then until she quit active politics after the March 1999 election, the incident had put the PBS Kawang Division executive committee on the alert.

"From 1987 onwards, we began to scrutinise the electoral rolls and found that the documents had been tainted. Many unknown persons, who were obviously non-locals, were transferred to the Kawang constituency from nowhere and registered as voters. At public hearings until the nineties (held at the Papar District Office), we kept raising objections to inclusion of their names in the rolls and wanted them to be expunged.

"Village headmen also testified that those were phantom voters and did not reside in their respective areas. But the then Papar SPR Officer said he would accept any blue IC from anyone for registration as a voter. He said he did not care whether the IC came from the sky or earth, so long as it was blue in colour," said the former PBS Kawang Division Chief.

- Daily Express, Sabah

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