Anwar: Not just Bangladeshis made up 40,000 dubious voters

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim now says a previous Opposition claim that over 40,000 dubious voters entered the country days before the general election in May did not refer to Bangladeshis alone.

He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had “confused the rakyat” when the latter said Pakatan Rakyat had alleged 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,” said Anwar at a press conference in Parliament lobby yesterday.

Anwar claimed that there were photographic and documented evidence that 16 chartered flights had 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”.