Wanita Umno will submit a list of phantom voters to the Election Commission (EC) in an effort to eliminate irregularities in the electoral rolls ahead of the coming general election, due by November next year.

Its leader Rafidah Aziz claimed the list comprised "thousands of voters" who could not be detected in certain constituencies following monitoring work carried out by the movement.

"We do not want them to 'appear' during voting when in fact they do not exist. We do not want these phantom voters around," she was quoted by Bernama as saying after attending a function in Gombak near Kuala Lumpur this morning.

Rafidah, who is also international trade and industry minister, however did not say when the list would be submitted to the EC.

She also urged women to register as voters so that they could help elect a responsible government to ensure their well being.

Contacted for comment, MCA secretary-general Dr Ting Chew Peh said his party has not discussed carrying out a similar effort as Wanita Umno.

"We have not discussed this so far...unless we receive complaints from our divisions or branches and feel there is a need to highlight this issue, then we will do it," Ting told malaysiakini .

"Cleaning up the electoral list is the job of the EC, not political parties, but it is a good thing that Wanita Umno has taken such an action in helping the EC," Ting said.

Praises for Wanita Umno

Leaders of two opposition parties when contacted by malaysiakini also supported the move by Wanita Umno.

PAS secretary-general Nasharudin Mat Isa urged the EC to investigate and take appropriate action once they receive the phantom voters list.

"This is a legal right of everybody. Should anyone be suspicious about any voter, a report should be lodged and action should be taken immediately," he said.

Nasharudin added that PAS is also monitoring closely the problems associated with phantom voters.

DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock said EC should hold the biggest responsibility to ensure a clean election.

He described Wanita Umno's move as "good" since political parties have repeatedly told the commission to eliminate phantom voters.

Kerk said DAP had also made similar effort during the 1995 election but not in recent years since most of the phantom voters were discovered in rural areas and did not affect DAP constituencies.

2.8 million phantom voters?

Last November, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad revealed that about 2.8 million phantom voters exist in the country over the last 30 years.

He said these voters did not vote in the constituency where they live in and majority of them were transferred by the opposition parties, especially PAS, to the villages and fringes of small towns.

However, in a recent interview with malaysiakini , EC head Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman denied the 2.8 million figure, where he said the premier had been "misled" before making the statement.

Abdul Rashid explained the figures came from certain people who compared the names on the electoral rolls with those at the National Registration Department. He said this is a wrong definition since the majority do not stay according to the address stated on their identification cards.

He said the real phantom voters are those who vote using identification documents of deceased people on polling day.