(May 7): Electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 has called the Election Commission (EC) "stupid" for brushing aside cases of voters using other people's identity cards to cast their votes at the ongoing Permatang Pauh by-election.

Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah said EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof should not have justified the matter as not serious.

"It's a stupid response. How can he answer in this manner? It's pure stupidity of EC to respond like this," she told The Malaysian Insider today.

In denying the presence of phantom voters, Aziz had instead acknowledged that there are people who found lost identity cards and use the cards to cast their votes.

“I wouldn’t consider it serious enough to declare the election results invalid because there are probably less than 10 such cases for more than 70,000 voters here,” he was quoted as saying by news portal Malay Mail Online.

Maria said it is already an offence even if there is only one case of a person using another's identity card to vote.

"You cannot justify it is a small matter and that it is less than 10 cases. That's a stupid answer. It is disenfranchising the right of a person to vote."

She said Bersih 2.0 had to date, collected nine cases comprising complaints where people had voted on their behalf, or their names were missing from the electoral roll or that their names have been moved out from the Permatang Pauh constituency.

She said the group had advised the affected people to lodge a police report, expressing hopes that both the police and EC will investigate.

"If EC does not do this, it means they are in league to cheat the electorate of Permatang Pauh.”

The Malaysian Insider had reported that some voters were shocked when they went to cast their votes, only to be told that ballots had been cast in their names.

DAP Permatang Pauh by-election director Steven Sim had said today's incidents were proof of phantom voters in the by-election.

After an exhausting 12 days of campaigning, Permatang Pauh folk began voting to elect a new MP for the hottest parliamentary seat in the country.

Pakatan Rakyat is expected to retain the seat held by its PKR ally since 1999.

This is a four-cornered fight among PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, new face from BN Suhaimi Sabudin, candidate from Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) Azman Shah Othman, and independent Salleh Isahak.

The EC expects official result to be announced at 9pm but the political parties will know the unofficial result as early as 6.30pm.

The by-election was called following the rejection of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's royal pardon following his five-year jail term for sodomy. – The Malaysian Insider