More than 2.2 million new voters between 2008-2011

By V. Shankar Ganesh and Noradilla Noorazam

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 2.2 million new voters have registered between 2008 and 2011, and almost 60 per cent of them are Malays.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong said Chinese were the next biggest group that have registered, at 24 per cent or almost 550,000 voters.

He said 155,420 new voters registered in 2008, 279,270 in 2009, 826,462 in 2010 and 1,008,850 in 2011.

He gave these figures when replying to Senator Datuk Ng Fook Heng who had asked for a racial breakdown of the people who registered as voters from 2008.

Going into details, Liew said that in 2008, 53 per cent of new voters were Malays, Chinese at 29.4 per cent and Indians at 8.1 per cent.

In 2009, 187,828 of the new voters or 67.3 per cent were Malays, Chinese stood 19.8 per cent and Sarawak Bumiputeras at 4.8 per cent.

In 2010, 466,137 of the new voters or 56.4 per cent were Malays, Chinese made up 27 per cent and Indians only made up 6.6 per cent.

Last year, there were 611,498 new Malay voters making up 60.6 per cent of the total, Chinese were at 22 per cent while Indians made up 6.7 per cent.

Using statistics from the Election Commission, Liew said Selangor registered the highest number of voters in the last four years with 373,748 new voters.

This was followed by Johor with 285,591 new voters, Perak at 249,405 new voters and Sarawak at 164,547 new voters.

Sabah has 149,940 new voters while Penang has seen 136,780 new voters.

Later in a supplementary question, Ng asked if there was any truth to claims that voters have been moved from one voting area to another and what were the figures.

Liew answered that the EC had no problems if voters wanted to change their voting districts on their own but the EC could not provide the number of such changes.

Senator Datuk Maijol Mahap then stood up claiming that about 40,000 people in Semporna, Sabah have received MyKads.

“Are they also voters there now?” he asked.

Liew replied that the matter was in the hands of the National Registration Department's jurisdiction.

“But those above 21 years old can register. This allegation is very serious and we do not have any information on this yet.”

In this 20th January 2011 archive picture, Election Commission officials (from right) Lili Marlina, Rosli Mohamad, Nor Nafiza, Ahmad Jazlan dan Mohd Shariful going through documents in preparation for nominations for the Tenang by-election at Tenang by-election nomination room at Labis District office. -- Pix by Gambar Rosdan Wahid

1 / 1

More than 2.2 million new voters between 2008-2011

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 2.2 million new voters have registered between 2008 and 2011, and almost 60 per cent of them are Malays.

Leave Your Comment

Most Read

Most Commented