When half the rural citizens are not registered as voters the EC cannot print enough voter registration forms for enfranchising them-how serious are the EC in doing its job? Picture show member of Sarawak Road Show Ooi TP helping an rural Iban youth to fill up a voter registration form by using his thump print.
Selangor EC has, after complaints by DAP, claimed that there had not been any shortage of voter registration forms. They blamed DAP for holding 20% of the forms without returning to the EC. However DAP retorted that they had indeed done a lot of registrations-as proven by the record that they had led all parties in voter registration in the last 6 months. However the same situation cannot be said of the Sarawak EC whose chief Dato Takun disclosed that there had been a shortage of voter registration forms due to supply bottlenecks from KL!
From press report the largest party in Sarawak -PBB, only registered a bit more than 800 new voters for the whole of last year, compared to 430 000 unregistered voters in Sarawak. So it is puzzling why the EC don’t agree to allow civil society members to become Assistant Registrars to enhance the voter registrations especially in Sarawak! Is there an intention NOT to register the voters-who are ironically found in the ruling parties’ vote bank? Is there a fear that the other half of those in the vote bank-who are not registered, are not reliable as supporters of the ruling parties? If that were the case the claim that the Sarawak’s rural areas is BN’s `fixed deposit’ could be found out to be dependent on keeping those oppose to its rule out of the electoral process!
It is equally puzzling why the Opposition parties too, have not shown much initiative in giving voting rights to these most voiceless, neglected citizens!
democracy4now
lucia
TP
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timchoo
