Newly formed Parti Keadilan Rakyat's eligibility to contest in the upcoming general election depends on whether it can secure an approval from the Registrar of Societies (ROS), said Election Commission secretary Wan Ahmad Wan Omar today.

He said if the ROS failed to give the green light before the elections are called, then Keadilan and PRM - which merged to form the new party - would have to contest separately using their old symbols.

According to a report by national news agency Bernama , Wan Ahmad said the party, which was launched on Sunday, must also register its new symbol before contesting in the polls.

Last week, the party's secretary-general Abdul Rahman Othman said the ROS was awaiting the clearance from other 'government agencies'.

He said ROS officials informed that the approval was at its final stages but could not be cleared due to external circumstances.

"They indicated to us that as far as ROS is concerned, the application is cleared...but they still have to wait for comments from other 'government agencies'," he said.

Phantom voters

In another development, the EC can now identify the existence of phantom voters with the 'Agency Link-up System' (Alis).

The system directly hooks up the commission's headquarters with its state offices, the National Registration Department (NRD) and other government agencies.

The system - developed by HeiTech Padu Bhd - would allow the EC to verify the voters' eligibility such as their citizenship, age and address, before they cast their votes.

Speaking to reporters after signing an agreement with HeiTech Padu for the supply of Alis, Wan Ahmad ( left ) said the system would weed out phantom voters, an issue that never fails to haunt elections in the country.

He said the system which costs about RM500,000 was expected to be operational this week thus enabling the commission to counter-check details with other agencies such as the Immigration Department, Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Road Transport Department (JPJ) and Inland Revenue Board (IRB).

"The electoral rolls have always been a sensitive and thorny issue raised by political parties, especially those in the opposition.

"With the presence of the Alis nobody, especially those who are not eligible to vote, can pass themselves off as voters with the EC," he said.

Wan Ahmad pointed out that with Alis, the commission would automatically be able to verify whether or not the identity card (IC) numbers registered by the voters were genuine.

He also said that voters would be registered based on the address on their ICs.

Currently, the EC has to send its list of voters to the NRD for verification and this is a time-consuming process.

Online campaign

Wan Ahmad also revealed that the commission was studying the online registration process to determine if it was tamper-proof.

He said the EC needed to ensure that those registered were genuine voters and not others who were information technology (IT)-savvy, especially from political parties.

The commission secretary added that a pool of officers will monitor the online campaign during the elections.

"Campaigning via internet will happen and EC will work closely with the police to monitor the situation besides holding discussions with the Multimedia Commission and the Ministry of Information on the matter since it is something new," he said.

However, he stressed that action would only be taken against those who breached election regulations.

He said the commission would hold another meeting with political parties regarding the election guidelines on Aug 19-20 at its headquarters in Putrajaya.

Wan Ahmad added that the EC was taking serious steps to ensure that political parties adhered to campaign guidelines which they had agreed to.

"We need to be strict on this as we don't want our country to be in situations faced by some of our neighbours," he said, adding that political parties must also ensure that their campaigns were free of personal attacks on rival candidates.