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4.2m M’sians have yet to register as voters

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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.

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