Voter registration: Let there be one database
'Excuses after excuses after excuses! When is this going to stop? The solution is actually simple but it does not amaze me why it's not implemented.'
Unregistered shocked at finding themselves voters
Joker: The Election Commission (EC) now blaming the voter registration officers (AROs)? In the case of citizens who did not register to vote but nevertheless found themselves to be voters, how can that be the ARO's fault?
Will they have such details of the individuals, if no one turns up and gives them their personal data? It seems more likely that it is the EC or the NRD (National Registration Department) who illegally registered these citizens as voters, since they would be the parties who have access to such information.
LBoy: Excuses after excuses after excuses! When is this going to stop? The solution is actually simple but it does not amaze me why the people in high office are not implementing it. Why can't there be just one database, i.e of the NRD?
As the law requires everyone to update their residential address, whatever address is in NRD's database should be the basis of where one has to vote. Voter registration should also be automatic upon attaining a certain age.
The current EC processes are clearly designed to give room for exploitation by the powers-that-be. And that is what has been happening all the while.
Alan Goh: EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Yusof, before your department could clean up the phantom voters, postal voters and more recently, clone voters, you want to introduce voting for Malaysians who are residing/working overseas.
Like the postal votes which allow Armed Forces staff to simply mark in favour of Umno/BN, you now want to enrol the help of the Malaysian embassies overseas to duplicate this role.
Forget the biometric system - just implement the indelible ink, which ensures that a registered Malaysian voter can only vote once.
Abdul Aziz, it is imperative that the EC is not only seen to be independent from Umno/BN, but remains apolitical to ensure a free and fair election. If your thick skull fails to understand this sacrosanct role, do Malaysians a favour by resigning.
Kgen: I'm sure the shady EC has an ulterior motive for allowing overseas Malaysians postal votes. More scope to fake the votes for BN?
Unless the EC is run by honest people, I don't trust whatever they do. The EC head and his deputy should be sacked and replaced by non-partisan people. Otherwise, the EC has no credibility at all.
2cts worth: EC is so kotor it can't be ‘bersih'ed. Now they blame the ARO. The head is rotting, that is the crux of the matter. Putting in new heads is the answer. Only then will the rot stop.
Jstom: The public must be aware that when they photostat their ICs at a stationary shop, unscrupulous shop owners would make an extra copy of the person's IC for this type of use.
I have come across this many times and had to request to return the extra copy made.
Onyourtoes: Don't get excited when the EC proposed to allow Malaysians overseas to vote. It could be just another avenue to plunder, knowing that the credibility of EC is in doubt.
There are many ways to abuse a system to favour oneself. If you registered but your name is not there, it means certain people do not want you to vote, knowing perhaps your political orientation/profile.
If you do not register but your name is in the electoral roll, it means certain people know that you are not likely to register and vote (especially when you are overseas), so someone somehow registered for you and then vote on your behalf.
If you find people not eligible to vote (permanent residents or immigrants, legal or illegal) but are registered voters, it means someone is scheming and manipulating.
If a registered voter finds his/her constituency or voting centre changed without his knowledge, it means someone does not want you to vote.
We know there are no perfect systems. What we should be talking about is an acceptable level of errors, whether genuine or fraudulent. Do you know for sure the errors as exist in the electoral rolls today would not tilt the balance in favour of some candidates or parties?
Anonymous_3da0: My sister spent seven years in the states and pointedly refused to register as a voter in her hometown because she did not trust the EC enough with another absent voter on the rolls. Needless to say, she ended up registered as a voter nonetheless.
Faz: There are a lot of avenues for the EC to improve the election machinery, but the EC chooses to put obstacles in front of them to make them look difficult to implement, giving excuses instead of solid legal reasons and generally non-receptive to any proposal detrimental to Umno-BN.
So, the bottomline is the EC will just refuse anything that is not beneficial to Umno-BN. EC too is buying time for Umno-BN to put in place all elements to deny the voters a real one-voter-one-vote status by trickery and outright cheating.
Armageddon: Is the EC waiting for Bersih 3.0 before taking action? The EC should start fresh, throw away all the current registration and start re-registering voters.
Ghkok: This is getting from bad to worse. People who are supposed to be registered are rejected, and people who didn't register are in the database. It's a total mess.
The integrity of the database is definitely in question. The integrity of the EC is even worse. The integrity of BN in not trying to solve the problem is probably the worst of the lot.
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