Anwar clarifies claim of 40,000 dubious voters are not Bangladeshis alone

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday clarified that his claim of over 40,000 dubious voters entering the country days before GE13 was not referring to Bangladeshis alone.

 

At a press conference in Parliament lobby, he claimed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had "confused the rakyat" when he said Pakatan Rakyat claimed the Election Commission had registered over 40,000 Bangladeshis as voters.

 

"We have explained and we have conducted a search, and nowhere does it state that I claimed there were 40,000 Bangladeshi voters.

 

"What I had meant was there were dubious voters being flown in on chartered flights from Sabah and Sarawak," he said.

 

Anwar explained that his party has obtained photographic and documented evidence that 16-chartered flights have been flying to the peninsula everyday from various locations in East Malaysia.

 

He had on May 2 claimed that at least 40,500 people would have been flown in through such flights, and said based on the passenger manifest, most would be foreign nationals.

 

"My question was how these people could be listed as advanced voters, along with the police and armed forces.

 

"Najib tossed the matter aside and asked the Bangladesh prime minister to also deny existence of 40,000 Bangladeshi voters.

 

"How would she know? This is a domestic matter which should be monitored by the EC," he added.

 

Anwar also claimed that the allegations of 40,000 Bangladeshi voters was a "spin by pro-Umno bloggers".