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Hassle to vote: (From left) Mahadevan, Manogaran and Subathara showing the EC printout on their polling stations. |
HOUSEWIFE M. Subathara, was looking forward to casting her vote for the first time on March 8 but her plan to walk into a polling station near her home was dashed when she discovered she had been registered as a voter elsewhere.
Instead, the 42-year-old who has been living in Jalan Van Praagh in Batu Lanchang, Penang, for 20 years, found she was registered as a voter in Jerai, Kedah.
“I don’t think I will travel some 80km from my home to cast my vote. It is too much of a hassle,” she said.
Subathara, who hails from Ladang Harvard in Bedong, said she and her husband registered as voters last May through an MIC representative.
Her husband, S. Mahadevan, 45, found himself registered as a voter for the Bayan Baru parliamentary seat and Pantai Jerejak state seat.
“I was surprised I was not given the Jelutong parliamentary seat and Batu Lanchang state seat like my seven relatives who live with me and have the same address,” he said.
Production worker Manogaran Anthony Dass, 27, who lives in Taman Sri Pinang in Sungai Pinang, also faces a similar predicament.
He has been registered as a voter in the Bagan parliamentary seat and Sungai Puyu state seat in Seberang Prai.
“I don’t think I want to vote as I don’t know how to get there. Sungai Puyu is about 30km from my house,” he said.
State Election Commission (EC) director Ahmad Shafee said records showed Subathara registered as a voter in Ladang Harvard in June 1988 while Mahadevan registered as a voter in Jalan Mayang Pasir, Bayan Baru, in January 1987.
On Manogaran, he said EC personnel could have made a mistake in typing out the polling station code.
“I have received many complaints relating to polling stations.
“The complainants should have checked their details on the electoral rolls which were put on display last month,” he said.
“At this point, we cannot do much for them as the rolls have been gazetted.”
Mahadevan when contacted later denied he and his wife were registered as voters previously.
