Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim in his parliamentary written reply dated March 26, 2014 stated that there were 33,098 new voters registered by the Assistant Registrar Officers (AROs) of all political parties in 2013.
However, with such a record, the Election Commission had in the November 2013 decided neither to extend the term of existing AROs nor to appoint new ones.
In 2009, Election Commission had organized 5,635 Outreach Programmes nationwide at the costs of RM2.226 million with only 161,148 new voters registration.
Before the AROs’ termination, political parties had conducted various roadshows and campaigns using own resources in morning markets, night markets or shopping malls without any allocation from the Government. Despite of that, AROs whom rendered their kind assistance voluntarily were terminated by the Election Commission without any reasonable grounds.
As of 2013, there are 13 million had registered as voters but there is an estimated number of 3.5 million unregistered voters that are not yet in the electoral roll. Therefore, the Election Commission should allow political parties and other NGOs to conduct voter registration through AROs in order to increase the number of voters.
Also, the Election Commission must give explanation on their new policies or strategies to increase the number of voters after the termination of AROs. If the Election Commission has no further actions to enhance the efficiency, we should learn the Automatic Voter Registration System implemented in Germany, Finland, Denmark, Normay, Singapore or other countries that allows 21 year-old Malaysians to become voters automatically.
The urge for Automatic Voter Registration System is not solely by the Pakatan Rakyat but also leaders from Barisan Nasional. UMNO Youth Chief, Khairy Jamaluddin had in a forum in 2012 called for such implementation. Barisan Nasional’s Backbenchers Club President cum Member of Parliament for Johor Bahru, Shahril Samad also in last year, seconded a resolution in the UMNO Johor’s State Committee meeting to implement the Automatic Voter Registration of the same practice in Singapore.
Nonetheless, the Election Commission should reform the voter registration system to increase the voter turnout at elections and public confidence especially the initiative to implement the Automatic Voter Registration, a civil right of all Malaysians yet enforced to date.