Some 11 million people eligible to vote
May 31, 2011
Political parties are going all out to rope in new voters
KUALA LUMPUR: Political parties have been aggressively registering new voters nationwide with some 115,989 already signed up as of March.
So far some 11,811,452 people have registered as voters while 3,973,032 or 25.2 percent have yet to do so.
Election Commission (EC) chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said the registration was done by 5,686 Voter Assistant Registrars.
“Their appointment was to facilitate voter registration regardless of time and place. We monitor the registration monthly,” he said today.
Aziz said EC had registered 21,042 voters including 15,726 new ones while the other 5,316 applied for change of voting centres.
The registration were made at counters, state election offices and via its ‘outreach’ programme at public places like hypermarkets and night markets.
Some 17,942 voters were registered at post offices while another 25,000 were made at government departments, universities and colleges.
Voter registration was lowest in 2009 (post-election year) and usually shoots up as the general election nears.
Aziz said the 16 by-elections held since March 2008 and campaigns via the electronic and print media helped to increase voter registration.
“EC always give people the chance to vote and choose their leaders at state and parlimentary level,” he added.
New voters increased from 157,327 in first quarter (Q1 2010) to 191,970 in Q2, 205,183 in Q3 and 331,264 for Q4 2010.
– Bernama
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