Automatic registration of voters will enfranchise 4mil citizens and save RM200mil over. There is no 1 measure that the government can take that has such efficiency! So indeed, why does the govt not do it? Blaming Anwar has been used to evade the issue.
Still no to automatic voter registration, says Putrajaya
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — The Najib Administration maintained today that it would not implement an automatic registration system for voters, saying that ultimately it was entirely up to Malaysians whether they wanted to vote.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said today that enforcing automatic registration would be too “complicated” and might affect the percentage of voters in a general election.
“The government does not intend to implement automatic registration for those above the age of 21 years of age because a large number of Malaysians do not live in the address stated in their IC. If automatic registration is implemented it will bring big implications to those involved as we are looking the mobility of the people which is very high.
“This is because there are some who still haven’t changed their address and automatic registration would cause further complications. What concerns us is that the percentage of voters coming out to vote on the day of elections will decrease and this will affect the country’s image in the global perspective,” said Nazri during Question Time in Parliament.
In a reply to PKR Ketereh MP Abdul Aziz Abdul Kadir, Nazri insisted that the government cannot “force” voters to exercise their right to vote.
Nazri also rapped Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers for “conveniently” questioning the integrity of the Elections Commission (EC), saying that the federal opposition would always be dissatisfied until and unless they take over the federal government.=
“The EC is very successful — if it is not so how did Pakatan win Penang? Kelantan? Kedah? Selangor? How did we (BN) lose out two-thirds majority if the EC was not doing their job properly?” said Nazri.
This in turn led Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to rebut Nazri’s points. He reiterated PR’s stand that the EC needed to be monitored by an independent body.
“If the minister says the EC is free and fair, he should allow it to be monitored…sometimes even robbers can win, but the way they get the victory is wrong.
“I am not saying that the EC is a robber. It’s just that if there are still 4 million unregistered voters, this is something which should be considered and improved on. If you are going to give an answer at least answer my question rather than giving excuses,” said Anwar.
In response, Nazri said that if Anwar was so concerned about implementing automatic registration for voters, he should have pushed for the idea back when he was the Deputy Prime Minister during the Mahathir Administration.
“The automatic voter registration issue is not new…I remember when YB Permatang Pauh was DPM, why didn’t you do anything then. You had a bigger position than me, why didn’t you do anything back then?” asked Nazri.
Anwar sidestepped the question, and reiterated his earlier arguments of the need to monitor the EC.
democracy4now
lucia
TP
sicnewsmirisite
timchoo
