By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Nov 14: Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) has questioned whether the recent amendment of the Sarawak Constitution will put non Sarawakians to be eligible to vote in the Sarawak state election.
Its spokesperson Alex Leong is concerned that the amendment will provide those from other states staying in Sarawak to vote in the state election in the future.
He noted the Federal Constitution Amendment Bill (2019) to amend Article 47 and Article 119 to enforce the new voting system will be based upon the National Registration database whose registered addresses will determine the polling station of the voter.
Leong opined that the automatic registration threatens the voting demographics in Sarawak as this meant many non Sarawakians who have Sarawakian addresses on their identification cards (IC) will be eligible to vote in Sarawak.
“Many teachers, civil servants, military and police personnel, oil and gas personnel working in Petronas and Malaysia LNG Sdn Bhd from Peninsular Malaysia have moved to Sarawak and updated their IC to Sarawak address.
“Many have also bought houses in Sarawak. When voting district is based upon their IC address in Sarawak, they could automatically become Sarawakian voters,” Leong said in a statement.
Thus, Leong hoped Sarawak lawmakers would realise the seriousness of the issue and take preemptive action to prevent Sarawak from being swamped with non Sarawakian voters and influence the outcome of the state election.
He claimed that the amendment of the Sarawak Constitution could turn into an IC Project 2.0 but is implemented in Sarawak instead of Sabah.
He believed that the move is a serious threat to the security and demographic structure of Sarawak. — DayakDaily
