Date: 16 February 2012/ News Source: New Straits Times
Election Commission records show almost four million people have yet to exercise their constitutional right. States highly coveted by both sides of the political aisle are those that have a high number of unregistered voters.
Election Commission records showed that Selangor had the highest number of unregistered voters at 667,876, followed by Johor at 510,602, Sarawak at 459,908, Kuala Lumpur at 406,978, and Perak at 330,273. The other states with a high number of eligible voters yet to register are Sabah (311,884), Kedah (248,327), Kelantan (191,480), Penang (157,618), Pahang (152,192), Negri Sembilan (127,496), Malacca (69,921), Terengganu (50,043), Perlis (25,856), Labuan (10,626) and Putrajaya (10,054).
Putrajaya recorded the highest percentage of unregistered voters at 48.6 per cent followed by Kuala Lumpur at 35 per cent and Perak at 34.4 per cent respectively. When contacted, Election Commission deputy chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar, said the commission was in the midst of planning an awareness campaign involving family heads. “This is so they will be able to encourage the future generation to be aware of the importance of voting and how it will affect their future.”
Wan Ahmad said the campaign was still in its preliminary stages. He said the EC conducted voter registration campaigns all year long with assistance from political parties and also non-governmental organisations. “We also set up booths at public places, we can also set up booths at events but the organiser has to write in to us first,” he said.
He expressed his hope that all quarters, including parents and the country’s leaders, would play a role in encouraging youths to register as voters. Wan Ahmad said youths should be made to understand that they have the constitutional right to vote and decide the future of the country. He added that it was not hard to register as voters because it could be done at any post office.
Universiti Sains Malaysia’s social sciences senior lecturer Dr Azeem Fazwan Ahmad Farouk said a majority of Malaysian youth are not into politics. “They do not feel the need to vote as they feel there are other important things in life.
“Maybe if the registration process was made easier it might attract them to vote.” On Tuesday, Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof revealed that more than 3.7 million Malaysians aged above 21 had yet to register as voters. He said records at the end of the third quarter of last year showed only 12,400,437 Malaysians gazetted as voters compared with the number of those eligible to register, which was 16,131,571.
“We hope the balance of 3,731,134 will register to enable them to cast their votes in the next election to determine the country’s future.” Aziz said this after opening a briefing for general election managers and assistant managers in Kangar. “If they want to be voters, they must register early as it is not a short process. “At the moment, 23 per cent of Malaysians eligible to vote have not registered.”
Read more: ‘Encourage youth to register to vote’
