This is how long the EC take to register a voter:

According to a info on EC web site the time taken to register a voter can be as quick as 1 month-if you are lucky-or 4 months, if you are not. The problem is because the EC only update the electoral roll quarterly-so why can’t they do so all year long-as done elsewhere? The problems with long registration time is: new voters may register closer to elections-and they may miss out due to that! The EC chief had mentioend that they are looking into shortening the period to 1 month-but it si not sure when that will be implemented. However the EC is also found to cut corners: from Permatang Pauh by-election in 2009 the EC has started to used un-gazzetted electoral rolls! That means they have been allowing voters to vote without going through the entire process of gazetting the voters! That means that they are not following their own rules and procedures! So if they have been allowing voters to vote earlier than their own time table why not make it official-thus do away any public suspicion of selectivity if the voters are allowed to vote without following the EC process? EC had in 1999 general elections, withheld registration of 680 000 mainly young voters despite their registration 9 months ahead of general election then. With such a record could they blame the public for suspecting their motives?

PENDAFTARAN PEMILIH

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EC to allow NGOs as Assistant Registrars-but when?

The EC released a statement in its web site recently-and updated the figures on un/registered voters. Sarawak continue to lead the chart in unregistered voters-at 33.6% (-0.2% from previous figures). The EC sounded alarm that the voter registration by all parties -including EC’s offices, 600 plus post offices and 2000 + Assistant Registrars appointed mainly from political parties and some civils servants, only amount to about half of the growth in voter at about half a million per year. At this rate there will be 5 mil unregistered voters at the next general election due in 2013. There is indeed a need to improve voter registration! Yet the inexplicable part of the EC is its lack of seriousness to look into changes in the registration system to help enfranchise the voters. It claimed that their `study’ into automatic registration had shown that there are going to be more problems arising than currently-but how was the comparisons made? The EC certainly had not referred to successful experiences elsewhere eg Australia, Singapore etc.

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