Election Commission has made Malaysia an international laughing-stock in taking nine months to revise its electoral register when in  New Zealand, people can still vote for the general election on Nov.  27 if they enrol the day before polling day


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
 

(Petaling Jaya,  Wednesday): The Election Commission has made Malaysia an international laughing-stock in taking nine months to revise its electoral register and disenfranchising 650,000 new voters who registered in April/May if the tenth general election is held from now to the end of January next year.

In other countries, the Election Commission went out of its  way to ensure that every eligible voter is registered so that he or she could exercise the constitutional right to vote during general elections - and it would be a scandal of the first magnitude if 650,000 new voters are disenfranchised after having registered for eight to nine months, requiring the Election Commission Chairman and its principal officers to resign in disgrace!

In Malaysia, however, the Election Commission is not motivated by the mission to ensure that every eligible voter could register and vote in a general election held once in four or five years. What is worse, the Election Commission could be so smug and incompetent as to justify the disenfranchisement of 650,000 new voters in the tenth general election if it does not have eight to nine months to complete the revision of the 1999 electoral roll!

New Zealand is holding its general election on 27th November 1999. Is the Election Commission Chairman, Datuk Omar Hashim  aware that New Zealanders can still vote for the general election on Nov.  27 if they enrol the day before polling day on Nov. 26?

On 2nd November 1999, the New Zealand Electoral Enrolment Centre National Manager, Murray Wicks, in a statement said that the electoral roll for this year’s general election closed for printing the previous week with 89 per cent of eligible electors enrolled to vote in the election.

Wicks said there were  still around 300,000 eligible electors who had yet to enrol for the election.

He said: "People can still enrol for the election, however, they will need to cast a special vote on Polling Day. Enrolments will be accepted up to and including Friday November 26, the day before Polling Day."

Can the Election Commission explain why New Zealanders can enrol on the eve of polling day and still vote during the general election on November 27, while 650,000 new voters in Malaysia are being disenfrachised although they had been registered since April/May this year?

The Election Commission is duty-bound to ensure that the 650,000 new voters are not disenfranchised in the tenth general election, regardless of when it is held as six months had already elapsed since the voters’ registration exercise, or this will be the biggest blot in the next general election.

(10/11/99)


*Lim Kit Siang - Malaysian Parliamentary Opposition Leader, Democratic Action Party Secretary-General & Member of Parliament for Tanjong