By Queville To
Out of the total of 150,327 people in Kinabatangan,
117,689 are foreigners and 32,638 locals.
KOTA KINABALU: The unexpected high
voter-to-population ratio in the Kinabatangan region on the east of Sabah has
raised concerns that non-citizens have made it into the new electoral rolls.
Sabah DAP
which sounded the alarm said the ratio had risen to as high as 68% and was
abnormal.
MP for Kota
Kinabalu Hiew King Cheu noted that a check on the electoral roll revealed that
registered voters in Kinabatangan is around 22,000 from a total local
population of 32,638, which which makes the population-to-voter ratio at 68%.
“This is
very high when compared with many other areas in Sabah. The normal
voters-to-population ratio is between 20% to 35% only.
“For
example in Beaufort, it is 28,000 voters to 70,000 people (36%), for Penampang,
it is 36,000 voters to 130,000 people (28%), and for Beluran it is 20,000
voters to 110,000 people (18%) only.
“It is not
possible for a constituency to have 68% of the population registered as voters.
Normally, many kampung folks and their young ones are not registered as voters
and also many of them are working away from the area. This is even more obvious
in Kinabatangan area.
“We cannot
understand the situation in Kinabatangan. Maybe someone can explain the high
voters- to-population ratio to us.”
Hiew said
this while commenting on the revelation by Women, Family and Community Ministry
secretary-general Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur that the immigrant population in the
Kinabatangan district in 2010 had surpassed the local population.
Noorul had
said that out of the total of 150,327 people in Kinabatangan, 117,689 were
foreigners and 32,638 were locals.
Hiew said
he was shocked to learn about this, adding that the figures revealed that
something was not right somewhere, especially when compared with the registered
number of voters on the electoral roll for the Kinabatangan parliament
constituency.
“The
secretary-general to the ministry and many other people may not have noticed
this extraordinary situation. The only logical explanation is that foreigners
have been registered as voters too,” he said.
He said the
Election Commission (EC) must explain the oddity.
Source : FMT
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