Permatang Pauh's typical postal voter is a policeman, 43 to 50 years old, who has been stationed at the new police HQ at Bukit Mertajam after the 2004 General Election. His police IC number typically starts with the characters "RF."
What does Table A tell us?
- Permatang Pauh hosts 490 postal voters,
- All of them are police voters (Locality code 700's).
- There are no army, navy, airforce, or overseas postal voters,
- Most of the the postal voters - 95% - are stationed in Seberang Jaya DUN (N10),
- Nearly 2/3 or 65% are in the new police HQ, at "Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Seberang Perai Tengah," which is actually in Bukit Mertajam,
- This new police HQ was added to Permatang Pauh only after the 2004 GE,
- Click on the "NamaLokaliti" links to open WikiMapia maps to these police stations. Please inform me of any mistaken map links.
| Parl/DUN/ DM/Lokaliti | NamaDUN State Assembly Seat | NamaDM Voting District | NamaLokaliti Locality Name (with links to WikiMapia.org) | House No. | TM Voting Station | Postal Voters |
| 044/10/01/701 | Seberang Jaya | Jalan Sembilang | Balai Polis Seberang Jaya | - | POS | 55 |
| 044/10/04/701 | Seberang Jaya | Kampong Belah Dua | Kor Sukarelawan Polis Siswa UITM | POS | 7 | |
| 044/10/07/701 | Seberang Jaya | Simpang Ampat | Balai Polis Bukit Mertajam | POS | 83 | |
| 044/10/07/702 | Seberang Jaya | Simpang Ampat | Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Seberang Perai Tengah | POS | 321 | |
| 044/11/02/701 | Permatang Pasir | Permatang Ara | Polis | 748 | POS | 1 |
| 044/12/07/701 | Penanti | Kubang Ulu | Balai Polis Kubang Semang | - | POS | 23 |
| P044 | Total postal voters | 490 |
What does Table B tell us?
- Permatang Pauh's postal voters increased sharply after the 11th GE in 2004,
- Postal voters increased from 91 to 490, an increase of 399,
- The increase came from the new police HQ and another station in Bukit Mertajam, mainly at "Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Seberang Perai Tengah" (044/10/07/701 and 044/10/07/702),
| Parl/DUN/ DM/Lokaliti | NamaDUN State Assembly Seat | NamaDM Voting District | NamaLokaliti Locality Name | 11th GE | 12th GE | P044 By- Election |
| Date of Electoral Roll | 2004 0302 | 2008 0205 | 2008 0731 | |||
| 044/10/01/701 | Seberang Jaya | Jalan Sembilang | Balai Polis Seberang Jaya | 61 | 55 | 55 |
| 044/10/04/701 | Seberang Jaya | Kampong Belah Dua | Kor Sukarelawan Polis Siswa UITM | 7 | 7 | |
| 044/10/05/701 | Seberang Jaya | Seberang Jaya I | Polis | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 044/10/07/701 | Seberang Jaya | Simpang Ampat | Balai Polis Bukit Mertajam | 84 | 83 | |
| 044/10/07/702 | Seberang Jaya | Simpang Ampat | Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Seberang Perai Tengah | 321 | 321 | |
| 044/11/02/701 | Permatang Pasir | Permatang Ara | Polis | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 044/12/07/701 | Penanti | Kubang Ulu | Balai Polis Kubang Semang | 28 | 24 | 23 |
| P044 | Total postal voters | 91 | 492 | 490 |
Does the jump in postal voters before 12th GE of 2008 have any implications today?
Yes! It helped to elect state assemblyman Arif Shah, the current by-election opponent to Anwar Ibrahim at the parliamentary level. Arif Shah's majority at Seberang Jaya (DUN, state assembly seat, N10) dropped from 4,464 in 2004 to only 553 in 2008.
How many new postal votes were introduced by the police HQ and police station in Bukit Mertajam (044/10/07/701 and 044/10/07/702) between the 11th GE and 12th GE?
The total was 405! The new police HQ introduced 405 new postal voters to Seberang Jaya, Arif Shah's state seat, by 2008 Feb 5 (before that number dropped to 404 by 2008 July 31).
This point becomes pertinent today, because Arif Shah appears to be BN's best candidate, and derives his legitimacy to contest against Anwar at Permatang Pauh from Arif's own election as the ADUN of Seberang Jaya by 533 votes. Had there been no new and old postal voters in the 12th GE, the Arif Shah's majority would be wafer thin, likely requiring many recounts.
TheMalaysianInsider.com quote below attributed Arif Shah's win to these postal voters.
| BN’s "Ariff Shah — first impressions," TheMalaysianInsider.com, Aug 14, 2008 (Extract) During the 2004 general election, Malaysians' generous mandate to the then new Prime Minister also gave first-time candidate Ariff Shah a thumping majority of 4,464 votes over the well-known figure Dr Mansor Othman, who was then Penang PKR chief. However, Abdullah's unpopularity later also cut Ariff Shah's majority to only 553 votes to an unknown Ramli Bulat of PKR, and most of the votes he received were said to be from postal votes. |
The questions would then be:
- Shouldn't postal votes require more transparency?
- Shouldn't postal votes be reformed to give postal voters more privacy and independence?
- Shouldn't we be monitoring postal votes in the next few days?
The chart below show us that 50% of the postal voters in Permatang Pauh as of 2008 July 31 were born from 1958 to1965. This makes them mostly 43 to 50 years old.
Chart 1: Permatang Pauh - Number of Postal Voters by Year of Birth
What do Tables C and D tell us?
- Most of these postal voters 424/490 are male, and policewomen number 66.
- Most of these police postal voters (424/490) have IC numbers that start with "RF,"
- The other police officers have IC numbers that start with "I," "G," and "RT,"
- (The number of 424 having "RF" IC and 424 being male is a coincidence. There are female police with "RF" ICs too.)
| Parl/DUN/ DM/Lokaliti | NamaDUN State Assembly Seat | NamaDM Voting District | NamaLokaliti Locality Name | Female | Male | Total |
| 044/10/01/701 | Seberang Jaya | Jalan Sembilang | Balai Polis Seberang Jaya | 10 | 45 | 55 |
| 044/10/04/701 | Seberang Jaya | Kampong Belah Dua | Kor Sukarelawan Polis Siswa UITM | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| 044/10/07/701 | Seberang Jaya | Simpang Ampat | Balai Polis Bukit Mertajam | 12 | 71 | 83 |
| 044/10/07/702 | Seberang Jaya | Simpang Ampat | Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Seberang Perai Tengah | 41 | 280 | 321 |
| 044/11/02/701 | Permatang Pasir | Permatang Ara | Polis | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 044/12/07/701 | Penanti | Kubang Ulu | Balai Polis Kubang Semang | 3 | 20 | 23 |
| P044 | Total postal voters | 66 | 424 | 490 |
Table D: Permatang Pauh - Postal Voters Broken Down by IC's Leading Characters
| Parl/DUN/ DM/Lokaliti | NamaDUN State Assembly Seat | NamaDM Voting District | NamaLokaliti Locality Name | RF | I | G | RT | Total |
| 044/10/01/701 | Seberang Jaya | Jalan Sembilang | Balai Polis Seberang Jaya | 54 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 55 |
| 044/10/04/701 | Seberang Jaya | Kampong Belah Dua | Kor Sukarelawan Polis Siswa UITM | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 044/10/07/701 | Seberang Jaya | Simpang Ampat | Balai Polis Bukit Mertajam | 67 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 83 |
| 044/10/07/702 | Seberang Jaya | Simpang Ampat | Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Seberang Perai Tengah | 274 | 26 | 8 | 13 | 321 |
| 044/11/02/701 | Permatang Pasir | Permatang Ara | Polis | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 044/12/07/701 | Penanti | Kubang Ulu | Balai Polis Kubang Semang | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 |
| P044 | Total postal voters | 424 | 34 | 10 | 22 | 490 |
An example of a police IC is "RF123456."
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