EC denies registering permanent residents as voters

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 12 — The Election Commission (EC) denied today allegations that it was granting voting rights and citizenships to permanent residents, blaming the discrepancies exposed by opposition lawmakers on outdated information on the National Registration Department’s (NRD) website.EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof confirmed this evening that the over 1,100 names revealed by opposition lawmakers recently were all legal citizens after their applications to convert their permanent resident statuses were approved.“They are all legal citizens. All these 1,100 are citizens. So it is not true that we are intentionally granting those with PR statuses voting rights,” he told reporters during a press conference at the commission’s headquarters here this evening.

Abdul Aziz said PAS lawmakers were cross-checking voter details using NRD’s website, which he said was not always up to date.According to Aziz, the EC uses the NRD’s agency link-up system (Alis), which is constantly being updated.“PAS’s problem is that it is checking with the website... this is not always updated. What they should do is, come and check with us. We welcome anyone to come forward if any such discrepancy is discovered... it is simple, we will just make the changes,” he said.

Abdul Aziz admitted, however, that the “EC is not perfect” and said technical errors were common, especially when handling over 12.26 million voters in the country.Pakatan Rakyat politicians demanded on Monday for an emergency sitting of Parliament to discuss claims that over 1,600 foreigners were given citizenship and voting rights, claiming that it would erode Malaysia’s constitutional monarchy if left unchecked.

PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar had told reporters that the permanent residents who were being given “express” citizenship and voting rights “would not appreciate our royalty as we do.”Despite denying the allegations, Abdul Aziz also admitted today that the “EC is not perfect”, saying technical errors were common, especially when handling over 12.26 million voters in the country.“Nowhere in the world can you find electoral rolls that are 100 per cent perfect. Minor errors are inevitable but we do not intentionally do it as claimed by them.“Sometimes names are registered twice, sometimes a person’s citizenship is revoked, sometimes a person dies... but it is not all the time. We will always keep cleaning the roll but mistakes can happen. Even if a name is mis-spelled with a dot, things are affected,” he said.

Abdul Aziz said the commission will meet with NRD next week to discuss ways to develop the Alis system to ensure minimal errors such as multiple registrations.He announced that the commission also decided this morning that citizens aged 90 and above who are found to be inactive for extended periods will be automatically removed from the electoral roll.“For this, we will leave it to the NRD to check if they have been active... perhaps if they came to change certain things in the ICs and so on, like gender for example,” he said, smiling.He said there are an estimated 12,000 registered voters aged 90 and above in Malaysia.



Source : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/ec-denies-registering-permanent-residents-as-voters/