MIC president G Palanivel revealed today that almost 40 percent of the 700,000 party members have not registered as voters.     

He therefore urged all divisions and branch leaders to step up efforts to get these members registered as voters before the 13th general election.     

When opening the 17th Kuala Langat MIC division meeting in Banting, Palanivel said data compiled by the Election Commission (EC) and the party headquarters showed that only 321,000 MIC members were registered voters.     

"We must first get our (MIC) members to register as voters to ensure they will be in a better position to seek assistance from the government or Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership," he said.

He also reminded MIC grassroots leaders on the maturity level and changes in perception of voters who were more independent now in making their decisions.     

"They used to support us (MIC) and BN, now we really need to work hard to gain their trust back in order to secure their support," stressed Palanivel.     

He also asked the delegates to identify all the voters in their respective branches and ensure they were re-registered in the respective constituencies.     

"This will help them in securing better lobbying power when they seek assistance from their respective representatives and avoid travelling to other towns or states to cast their votes," he said.     

On MIC's effort to reactivate all the defunct or deregistered branches, Palanivel explained to the delegates that the party wanted to go further under his leadership.     

"We want not only to see a return of old members, but we go further than that by recruiting more new members.     

"I want to see genuinely new faces in the party and lately I'm glad to witness some new members attending our (MIC) functions," he added.     

At the Kuala Langat meeting, some 120 delegates unanimously adopted a  resolution urging the party leadership to secure two cabinet posts for the party.     

Currently, MIC is only represented by S Subramaniam in the cabinet as the Human Resource Minister.         

120,000 Umno members yet to register

Meanwhile Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin today reminded leaders of the movement throughout the country to intensify efforts by the voters election machinery as there are still 120,000 members who have not registered as voters.     

He said party members who had not registered as voters were considered to have committed a 'political sin' and the programme to register them as voters should be made as the focus in preparing to face the 13th general election.     

He said if party members deliberately refused to register as voters, follow-up action should be taken because it would be detrimental to the party.     

"Although we have not recommended the type of punishment or disciplinary action to be imposed on those who have not registered as voters, the non-registration will be a major loss to the party because it has members who do not vote in the election," he told reporters after opening the simultaneous conference of the Youth, Wanita and Puteri wings of the Tanjong Umno division, in George Town today.     

He said the Umno Youth movement currently had 600,000 members and 120,000 of them had not registered as voters.     

Khairy said so far the Perak Umno Youth had succeeded to reduce by 50 per cent the number of members who had not registered as voters.     

He said party members could no longer consider that the Barisan Nasional (BN) had safe seats or 'fixed deposits' to win and continue to rule.     

"There are no longer any "Fixed Deposit" or safe seats for the BN even in Sarawak, and the next general election will be a matter of life and death for the BN," he said.     

As such, he urged all BN leaders in Penang not to despair and instead work hard to wrest the state in the 13th general election.   

- Bernama