Election candidate upset EC withholding GE14 score sheets
KUCHING: The DAP candidate for the Serian parliamentary seat in the recent general election, Edward Andrew Luwak, has asked why the Election Commission refused to release the score sheets of the polls to candidates who requested for them.
He said shortly after the election he went to the office of the Returning Officer for P199 Serian who is the District Officer to ask for the score sheet but was given the run around.
“I was told that the office of the Returning Officer could not print out the score sheet as all ‘ pen- drives’ and ‘soft copies’ of election documents had been sent to the state election office in Kuching. I went to the State Election Commission office at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar, Simpang Tiga, Kuching. There I was told by the staff that the State Election Commission office could not issue the score sheet as all election documents have been sent to the Election Commission headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. At the help desk there was a notice stating that score sheets were unavailable.
“I was advised to obtain the score sheet from the Election Commission headquarters in Putra Jaya,” said Edward in a press statement issued yesterday.
Edward also asked why the score sheets are being kept as ‘confidential documents’ as there is no section in the Conduct of Election Act and Regulations that requires the Election Commission to withhold the issuance of these documents.
“For P199 Serian, it is suspected that there have been serious flaws in the conduct of the election. Many statutory procedures were not adhered to. We need to compare our suspicion with the official record at the Election Commission.
“The candidates and the voters need to know why and how the irregularities and mistakes were made. The General Election is a serious matter as it is conducted to elect members of the legislature. Thus it needs to be conducted in a clean and fair manner,” he said.
“If there are serious flaws, a by- election may be required. For this, we leave it to the Election Court to decide. We need to do the verification before making the next move related to the election in P199 Parliamentary constituency. It is hoped that the Election Commission take serious view on the matter.”