Sabah RCI: Pakistani voted twice, claims name still on roll

KOTA KINABALU: A Pakistan national who had obtained a Malaysian identity card (IC) through dubious means claimed that he had voted twice in general elections and that his name is still on the electoral roll.

Abdul Latif Jumaani, who got his identity card in 1992 at a restaurant in Kota Kinabalu, said he had voted once in Ampang, Selangor, and then in Bahau, Negri Sembilan.

“I wanted to vote again in the last general election as my name is still on the roll but I had no document to travel to the peninsula,” he told the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah.

He said this was because he was informed “four or five months ago” by the National Registration Department (NRD) that his identity card had been cancelled.

He could not remember which year he had voted, initially saying “2006 and 1995″.

When told there was no general election in 2006, he said: “I can’t remember correctly, but (Abdullah Ahmad) Badawi (left) was the prime minister then,” Malaysiakini quoted him as saying.

Abdul Latif – who entered Malaysia via Kuala Lumpur from Pakistan in 1983 and whose real name is Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz Khan – found that his IC was cancelled when he tried to get a replacement upon losing it at a rest area in Nilai in 2002.

A fake with the same birth date

After many years of telling Abdul Latif that his IC is still “under process”, the NRD eventually told him that his application had been cancelled as it belonged to someone else – another Abdul Latif Jumaani.

According to NRD records tender as evidence, the other Abdul Latif, a Bajau, was born in 1958 and his IC – procured via a certificate of status – was issued in 1987.

The Pakistani Abdul Latif’s IC was found to be issued in 1989 and it is noted that he had been born in 1968, albeit on the same day of the month.

They were both also registered as having had been born in Semporna and sharing the same address in Tuaran. The Pakistani, however, told the RCI that he was born in Swat, Pakistan.

“So this gentleman here is a fake?” asked RCI chairperson Steve Shim (photo), to which conducting officer Jamil Aripin answered in the affirmative.

On-the-spot checks on the Election Commission website by conducting officer Manoj Kurup found that the 12-digit IC number issued to the Pakistani when he changed his IC to the ‘bunga raya’ version in 1995 is not on the electoral roll.

However, the old IC number is on the roll, but the voter registered – Abdul Latif Jumaani – was born in 1958, indicating that this was the Bajau Abdul Latif and not the Pakistani one.

Conducting officer Jamil informed the RCI that the Bajau Abdul Latif is at large and cannot be located.

‘Didn’t pay for dubious IC’

According to the Pakistani, he did not pay for the identity card in 1992 and is not sure if the friend who arranged for it did so as he could not speak Bahasa Malaysia very well at the time.

He said since then, he had been issued three passports by the immigration, one of which was an “emergency passport” issued in 2010 to allow him to return to Pakistan to visit his sick mother.

According to Jamil, an emergency travel document can be issued, but only allows travel to one destination and is valid for only one year.

He was issued the emergency travel document as a Malaysian passport could not be issued since he was still waiting for the replacement of his lost IC.

He said he could not obtain a Pakistani passport as Pakistan no longer recognises him as a citizen.

The consulate has even lodged a police report against him for harassment at its office in Ampang.

The trader, who has been held in immigration holding centres and police lock-ups all over Malaysia, married a Filipino IMM13 (a document issued to refugees) holder two years ago and has one child.

“I have no way now. Pakistan does not recognise me and Malaysia does not either. My child does not have documentation either so I hope I can get some help,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Insider adds that the three-party Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition has accused the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition of electoral fraud to maintain its hold on federal power.

During the campaign period, PKR had accused BN of conspiring to fly over foreigners from Borneo Malaysia to vote in hotspots in the peninsula, namely Selangor, in a bid to retake the wealthy state.

During the campaign period, PKR had accused the BN of conspiring with the national airlines to fly over as many as 40,000 dubious voters from Borneo Malaysia to vote in hotspots in the peninsula, namely Selangor, in a bid to retake the wealthy state.

But the Prime Minister’s Office has denied Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) claim that it was involved in flying in Malaysians and foreigners to the peninsula to vote in the 13th general election. Malaysia Airlines has also denied allegations that it is deploying chartered flights to transport “phantom voters”.

On May 2, Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor admitted that voters had been flown to the peninsula, but stressed that the flights were sponsored by “friends” of BN as part of the party’s “get out the vote” campaign for Election 2013.

A syndicate involving then-Sabah NRD directors had made at least RM11 million from selling ICs to illegal immigrants in Sabah, senior Special Branch (SB) officer Supt Ahmad Fauzan Mohamad testified last February.

Then-Sabah NRD director Ramli Kamarudin, however, testified last January that then-deputy home minister, the late Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayub, had ordered him to issue NRD receipts, which matched the names and IC numbers of registered voters, to immigrants to allow them to vote in the 1994 Sabah state election.

The state election saw Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) winning just 25 out of 48 state assembly seats.

But several PBS assemblymen defected to Barisan Nasional (BN) shortly after, causing the collapse of the PBS government.