Press statement by Teresa Kok, MP for Seputeh and Vice Chairperson of DAP on 5th January 2013 at Kuala Lumpur
The remarks by Elections Commission Deputy Chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar on the DAP’s internal polls are unwarranted and unbecoming of a body that is supposed to be non-partisan. The EC should maintain its statutory neutrality and refrain from poking its nose into the affairs of political parties.
Wan Ahmad should not forget the series of embarrassing mistakes and rectification of polls results made by Elections Commission. The most obvious mistake was the polls results amendments at Pasir Puteh Parliamentary Constituency, where three months after the March 21, 2004 general elections, the public were suddenly told that the returning officer had erroneously announced Kalthom Othman of PAS the elected MP with a big majority of 3,810 votes on polling night. The EC stunned the nation by declaring UMNO candidate Che Min Che Ahmad the winner.
EC officers have also made similar mistake in the polls results in the Seputeh Parliamentary constituency in 2004. On polling night I, as the DAP candidate, was declared the winner with 28,921 votes to 17,418 for MCA’s Chin Yen Foo but the EC subsequently rectified the results to DAP winning with majority of 12,895 (Teresa Kok 33,197 Chin Yen Foo 20,302), and the later result was published in the EC gazette record.
These two cases in 2004 General Elections show that EC has rectified its elections results months after the polls results being announced too, after it found out that there were errors in the initial declarations.
I urge Wan Ahmad to maintain his neutrality as EC Deputy Chairman and stop commenting on political party’s internal affairs, including party polls results. He should look at his own backyard and make sure EC will run clean and fair general elections in 2013.
Teresa Kok