KUALA LUMPUR: Voters’ data or name list taken from the National Registration Department (NRD) must be trustworthy.
This is to ensure that a clean electoral roll is in place if the constitutional amendment to include automatic voter registration in lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 is passed by Parliament.
Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) chairman Thomas Fann said NRD must continue to impose stricter requirements on those who wanted to change their addresses by requiring proof of residence.
“Previously, no proof was required,” he told the New Straits Times.
He was commenting on Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s announcement on Monday that the government had agreed to include automatic registration of voters in the constitutional amendment to lower the voting age from 21 to 18.
The Pakatan Harapan chairman said those who turned 18 had the right to make their voices heard through the ballot box.
Fann said the Election Commission (EC) should be accorded the power to identify and investigate dubious voters, as well as remove them if their names were entered fraudulently or disqualified from the list of voters
“Ideally, the EC should allow third party organisations to audit the electoral roll to assure the public of its integrity.”
Other concerns raised by Bersih 2.0 over automatic registration of voters include the exacerbation of malapportionment, or constituencies, which are considered too large, especially those in urban areas.
He said the number of voters would increase substantially since there were four million people who had yet to register as voters.
“If the amendment is passed, they will be added automatically.
“On top of that, an estimated four million of those who are 18 and above will be registered too if the voting age is lowered. This is an increase of eight million new voters.
“The bigger concern is it will increase voters in constituencies that are facing malapportionment in urban areas. Hence, the EC must conduct a redelineation exercise to make constituencies equal, but this requires constitutional amendment.”
Policy Research Institute chairman Datuk Khalid Jaafar believed that concerns about automatic voter registration were a technical issue which could be resolved.
He said the main concern should be reinforcing the spirit of Rukun Negara among the younger generation, as well as ensuring that they fulfil their duties as responsible citizens.
“They must be educated on the structure of the government. The rule of the law and Rukun Negara must be expounded to them so that they can be responsible citizens.”
He said the responsibility to educate the younger generation should not be left to the EC and Education Ministry as it should be a collective effort involving the media, non-governmental organisations and youth activists.
“For the first time in our country, we are placing confidence in the younger generation to make a fundamental decision involving the nation.
“It is important for parties and youth organisations to educate our youth on how to measure the performance of parties and decide if they serve the interest of society.
“It is important to educate them on making the right choices and make them aware of their responsibilities.”
In a radio interview recently, the EC said it was ready to implement automatic registration of voters provided that its database was synched with the NRD, Prison and the Health departments.
EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun said the commission needed information from the three departments to check if those to be registered automatically were Malaysian citizens who had reached the eligible age to vote; that they must not be serving or must not be liable to serve any court sentence of imprisonment of more than 12 months, or life imprisonment, or death penalty; and that they must be sane.
“The automatic registration can be implemented as long as the three agencies are linked together and can provide the EC with the right data.”
In the same interview, Azhar shared his views over concerns that automatic voter registration would give rise to phantom voters.
He said the commission was not a primary data collector and that it relied on the NRD to determine a person’s address and citizenship.