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Election Commission should stop tinkering and  trespassing on  policy issues  like the minimum age for voters and make a good job of its constitutional mandate to conduct free, fair and clean elections starting with a honest and comprehensive electoral roll free of phantom voters Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Petaling Jaya,  Wednesday): Election Commission should stop tinkering and  trespassing on  policy issues  like the minimum age for voters and make a good job of its constitutional mandate to conduct free, fair and clean elections starting with a honest and comprehensive electoral roll free of phantom voters  Election Commission secretary Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said in Kangar yesterday that the Election Commission does not propose to lower the minimum voting age from 21 to 18 years for the time being and giving his reasons.  The Election Commission should stop tinkering and trespassing on policy issues as whether the voting age is reduced from 21 to 18 years – which DAP had advocated since the seventies – is for Parliament and not for the Election Commission to decide, and the Election Commission should more profitably focus its energies and resources on doing a good job of its constitutional mandate to conduct free, fair and clean elections starting with drawing up a honest and comprehensive electoral roll free of phantom voters. It is a standing embarrassment to Malaysia, the Multi-Media Super Corridor and the nation’s  IT ambitions that seven years after the government’s proclamation to be a pioneer of e-government, the Election Commission is still struggling with the introduction of an electronic voter registration system. A search of the Internet will show that many countries allow their citizens to register as voters electronically, or to download the voter-registration form from the Internet for onward transmission. In Malaysia, the Election Commission is incapable of any such elementary electronic services. But the greatest blot on the Election Commission is its inability to produce a clean, honest and comprehensive electoral roll, in particular to clean the electoral roll of phantom voters. The Prime Minister and Barisan Nasional Chairman, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had alleged last November of the existence of  some 2.8 million phantome voters - or more than 30 per cent of the total registered voters in the country.  Mahathir said that the 2.8 million registered voters  have had their names relocated by certain parties to constituencies of which they have nothing to do with them. Deputy Prime Minister and Barisan Nasional Deputy Chairman Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had announced that the Barisan Nasional would submit details on the 2.8 million voters, who had been transferred to other constituencies, to the Election Commission for action before the next general election.   Had the Barisan Nasional submitted proofs of these 2.8 million phantom voters on the electoral roll and what has the Election Commission done about them? Or had Mahathir and Abdullah made baseless allegations about 2.8 million phantom voters?  DAP had been complaining about phantom voters for the past three decades and we agree with Abdullah  that there should not be much difficulty in tracking the phantom voters and cleaning up the electoral roll as the Election Commission and the relevant government departments are fully computerized. As Abdullah had said: "A voter must be genuinely connected to the place where or she is registered. If the commission finds 20 or 30 persons using the same address, or the voters come from places unrelated to the place of registration, then something is wrong and this should be investigated." (Star 5.11.02) The Election Commission must not be allowed to shirk its responsibility from drawing up a honest and comprehensive electoral roll, cleansed of the millions of phantom voters who neither reside nor work in the constituency they are registered as voters, or Members of Parliament from all political parties should join forces to pass a vote of no confidence in the Election Commission in the next parliamentary meeting next month. (7/5/2003) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman