KUCHING: There are 4.2 million eligible Malaysians who have yet to register themselves as voters and political parties from the Barisan Nasional and the opposition front should do their part to reach out to them and get them registered.
This big number of non-registered eligible voters, if registered in time, can make a huge impact and difference on the outcome of the upcoming 14th General Election, which is expected to be held between now and on or before 24 Aug, 2018.
The 13th General Election was held on 5 May, 2013 and the current 13th Parliament of Malaysia will automatically dissolve on 24 June, 2018.
As such, voter registration should be given top priority by all the parties concerned if they want to see better performances and better voters’ turnout in the coming 14th General Election.
In the 13th General Election, there were 13,268,002 registered voters while 11,257,147 voters turned up to vote. There were 5,237,699 (47.38%) popular votes for Barisan Nasional and 5,623,984 (50.87%) for Pakatan Rakyat.
The 13th General Election also saw a 3.08% in vote swing for Pakatan Rakyat while there was a 4.01% drop for Barisan Nasional.
Malaysia has a population of 29.72 million (according to 2013 statistics) and of these, 17.6 million Malaysians aged 21 years old and above are eligible to vote. However, only 13.4 million of the eligible voters have registered themselves while the remaining 4.2 million have not.
Between 2013 and 2015, there were only 617,254 registered voters.
According to the Election Commission 2009 Annual Report, a total of 279,490 new voters were registered in 2009. The number increased by three-fold to 820, 156 in 2010.
The voter registration exercise reached its peak in 2011, with 1,023,170 Malaysians registered as new voters in that year alone. That increase was probably due to greater awareness in anticipation of the 13th General Election in 2013.
However, the number of new voters dropped by 30 per cent in 2012. In 2013, only 195,193 new voters were registered.
Political happenings and political development in the country can stir up and create greater sense of awareness among the population at large, and therefore, what political parties should do is to create that political interest and awareness.
The drop in the number of Assistant Registrars from political parties could also have contributed to the number of people who registered as voters.
In 2011, there were 5,720 Assistant Registrars from political parties. However, the number plunged to 4,777 in 2012 and in 2013, there were only 1,901 Assistant Registrars from political parties.
It is said that out of every four eligible Malaysians, one would not be able to vote if the 14th General Election were to be held tomorrow.
It has also been said that at the speed we are going, it may take 20 years to register all unregistered voters in this country.
In their quest to fortify their positions, political parties from both sides should continue to place greater emphasis and efforts to reach out to the non-registered eligible Malaysian voters.