Citing the Election Commission’s (EC) latest electoral roll for Sabah, Kitingan said there were 51,777 voters in Keningau in 2018, but this has increased to 87,371 this year, a 70.7% surge.

“This is very unusual and suspicious,” the Sabah deputy chief minister said in a statement.

He also claimed that the number of voters aged between 18 and 21 in the constituency was less than 8,000, and there was “no way” the number of voters would have increased by more than 30,000 in less than five years.

This comes after the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) called for an audit into the sharp rise in the number of voters in the state following the release of the EC’s latest electoral roll.

SAPP president Yong Teck Lee said there were now 1,638,806 voters in Sabah compared with 1,064,686 in 2008, a 53.9% rise. He suspected that this was due to a high number of “dubious” voters.

Yong reportedly claimed that, based on a preliminary review of the 2022 electoral roll, many of the new voters were aged above 30 while some were in their 60s.

The former chief minister found it suspicious that many middle-aged people were newly registered as voters.

Kitingan shared Yong’s concern and demanded that the authorities investigate the matter immediately.

“Sabah voters are equally shocked by this revelation. They demand answers from the authorities and their immediate action,” he said.