Malaysians Have Trouble Registering As Voters Because The System Is Down
Malaysians are gearing up to place their votes in the next general election.
By Tang Ruxyn — 30 Sep 2016, 10:45 AM
There has been a greater urgency to register as a voter lately as Malaysians as speculations have been running high that the next General Election (GE14) could be pushed forward to as early as March 2017 from the August 2018 deadline
The public was alarmed as there have been claims that the deadline for voter registration is on 30 September (today) in order to be an eligible voter during GE14.
However, this is not true. The public was urged to register by 30 September to ensure that they can vote should GE14 be held on March 2017 because it may take three to six months for your name to appear on the electoral roll.
"If GE14 is called in the first quarter of 2017, the last opportunity for eligible Malaysians to register as voters will be the end of this month (30 September)," Global Bersih spokesperson Lydia Chai was quoted as saying.
Therefore, there is no deadline to register as people have speculated and the public should continue to register as voters even after 30 September.
In the midst of this confusion, Malaysians have been facing some difficulty in registering themselves as voters. They were informed that system was down at the respective post offices they were at.
Many Malaysians have been heading to post offices as it is the easiest and most convenient way of registering themselves as voters.
However, they were faced with disappointment as they were turned away with the reason that the system for registration was down or that the offices ran out of forms.
DAP Selangor held a press conference yesterday, 29 September, to urge the Election Commission (SPR) to "get their act together"
In a Facebook post, Subang Jaya MP Hannah Yeoh highlighted several hurdles that DAP Selangor had to face while they tried to collaborate with SPR to organise voters registration drives in malls in the last month.
She stated that:
1. SPR could only commit to one event per week across Selangor
2. SPR refused to bring sufficient forms resulting in our event being forced to end prematurely
3. SPR has cancelled 4 out of 5 of our planned voters registration events in October
"My office has received a lot of calls from frustrated residents who failed to register as voters in post offices because of the classic excuse given - "system is down"," the Selangor State Assembly speaker added.
Meanwhile, Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said that the SPR has failed to carry out its mandated responsibilities, citing restrictions and difficulties faced in the voter registration process
"Instead of making concrete and concerted efforts in collaboration with all parties to increase the number of voters registered, the EC is doing its utmost to slow down new registrations," Pua told a press conference at the DAP Selangor headquarters.
"The EC being the only institution who can register new voters in the country, is pro-actively stalling and impeding the registration of new voters," he said, citing the EC’s recent reminder to DAP to cancel all their planned voter registration campaigns after 3 October, because they (EC) had to handle objections to the proposed redelineation exercise.
"At best, the EC’s actions show that they are incompetent and are abdicating their responsibility, that is to ensure qualified voters are able to vote. At worst, they are clearly sabotaging the electoral process by denying these voters their basic rights," Pua said.
4.2 million Malaysians are eligible voters but these people have yet to register as of April 2016
In April, Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching revealed that only 205,751 Malaysians registered themselves in a year as voters on the average.
She urged for greater urgency to ensure that these eligible Malaysians to register as voters otherwise it would mean that one out of every eligible voter would not be able to vote if the 14th General Election was called tomorrow.
"Voter registration should be handled with top priority. Such rights should not be denied by complicating a simple process through bureaucratic processes and procedures," she was quoted as saying by Free Malaysia Today.