Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) issued a memorandum to the Perak State Election Commission for its delay in the issuance of a permit to register voters during the Thaipusam celebrations on January 30. The protest memo was handed over to its Deputy Director, Wan Mohammed Salleh by PSM Deputy Chairman, Ms M. Saraswathy. She was accompanied by PSM Committee member K. Segar Kunasekaran.
PSM had applied to the Election Commission last December for approval to register voters in view of the high number of unregistered voters in the country (500,000 in Perak). The party was then informed that its appointment letter would be released within two weeks. It had requested for 10,000 application forms. However, PSM was later informed that such a number would require the EC to send its officers along for the exercise. This was made conditional upon the release of the registration forms. The party found this strange as no such condition was extended to other political parties.
PSM planned to register voters at Gunung Cheroh, Kg Kepayang and Sungai Siput during Thaipusam. Volunteers have been deployed there. Looks like their efforts would be in vain.
State Election Director, Haji Ahmad Adli Abdullah, could not be reached for comment.
JAG
