The Malaysian Ex-Servicemen Association is tracking ex-servicemen throughout the country to extend welfare assistance and get them and their family members registered as voters.     

Its president Muhammad Abdul Ghani said the association found that servicemen no longer vote after their retirement.     

"Many of their children are also not registered as voters," he told reporters here.     

"If previously they fought to ensure peace in the country, they should now vote to ensure that the peace they had fought for, prevails."     

The association, he said, would appoint five of its members in each parliamentary area to track these ex-servicemen within the next three months.     

The association has 142,000 member in 227 branches.     

Some 458,680 members of the armed forces retired from the service since 1933 but it was not known how many of them had died, he said.     

Of the total, 12,970 were officers and 445,710 in other ranks. A total of 92,485 ex-servicemen were in the pension scheme.