Speech by M.Kula Segaran at the meeting of "Assistant Registrars" at Perak DAP HQ on 14^thAugust 2010:

New voters will be a significant factor in the Pakatan Rakyat's battle to capture both Perak and Federal power in the next general election

According to statistics released by Election Commission, there were about half a million eligible Perakians who had yet to register themselves as voters. This constituted about one third of the 1.3 million eligible voters in the state.

Nationally, about 3 million eligible citizens had yet to register. It is pathetic that for a nation which has had 13 general elections, the majority of these unregistered voters have not signed themselves as eligible voters.

Registration of new voters is an important responsibility of the Election Commission (EC). Hence, the only conclusion we can make is that EC has failed to do its job.

It should not be the job of the political parties, but DAP has tried to play its part in registering new voters.59 DAP Assistant Registration Officers were appointed, and DAP Perak has been carrying out new voter registration campaign over the last few months.

Sad to say, though DAP has been very aggressive in carrying out the campaign, the number of new voters we have managed to register is still minimal compared with the half million Perakians who ought to register themselves as voters.

This is why DAP has been calling on the Election Commission to make it automatic for all citizens reaching the eligible age to become registered voters.

But for obvious political reasons, neither the Election Commission nor the BN government is prepared to implement such a plan.Hence, DAP and PR component parties will have to treble our efforts to ensure more Malaysians sign up as voters before the next election.

Undoubtedly, new voters will be a significant factor in the Pakatan Rakyat's battle to capture both Perak and Federal power in the next general election.

Therefore, I call on all PR supporters to help the voter registration campaign by getting their next of kins, neighbors, friends and colleagues who are eligible to sign up as voters to immediately do so that they can help bring about PR's victories in the next general election.

* M. Kula Segaran, DAP National Vice Chairman & MP for Ipoh Barat