The daughter of a female centenarian is shocked that her mother, who is still alive, is registered as ‘not active’ in the second quarter update of the supplementary draft of the electoral roll.

Election Commission (EC) records show that the Penangite, whose birthdate is stated as July 11, 1910, was registered as “inactive” by the National Registration Department (NRD).

According to daughter Teo Sut Mooi, her mother Kin Swee Tin is actually 92 years old.

“I learnt that during the Japanese Occupation, when she registered for her birth certificate, they recorded her as being 10 years older,” Teo told reporters who visited her apartment in Solok Rawana, off Jalan P Ramlee, in Penang today.

“My mother votes in the Komtar constituency. She is suffering from Parkinson’s disease and it’s her sleeping time now,” added the homemaker.

Teo said her mother did not cast her vote in the last general election in 2008 due to her sickness.

She added that the centenarian has been unable to walk for the past 10 years.

Since Bersih 2.0's demands for election reforms, the EC has been plagued by numerous complaints about the electoral roll.

Recently, the NRD admitted that failure to update its database has resulted in several irregularities in voters’ status.

One such case was when an apparent non-citizen was listed as a voter, another involved the now well-known case of Mismah , who on the NRD website was shown as a permanent resident, but was listed as a voter on the EC website.

Meanwhile, Komtar assemblyperson Ng Wei Aik who led the visit to Teo’s apartment, said he would help re-register Kin with the NRD and EC to “reactivate” her records.

He added that he had come to know about her situation as she was registered with the state government as a ‘Warga Emas’ and has received the RM100 senior citizen award twice.

“I want to highlight this issue because there may be many other cases like this, especially for senior citizens, when their records are deleted or deemed inactive when they are actually still alive,” he said.

Old IC not replaced wsith MyKad

“She may be considered inactive in the NRD because she has not replaced her old identity card with the new MyKad,” Ng added, showing reporters Kin’s old IC.

He urged the EC to check its records thoroughly before deleting a voter’s details in future.

He said if the EC were uncertain of the status of a voter, it should investigate the matter before assuming the person was dead.

“Please don’t deny the elderly their right to vote, don’t simply assume they are dead,” Ng told the EC.

penang lodge mcmc report against blogger 210910 ng wei aik “It is fortunate that I know about her case and have been informed about it, or else I would lose a (potential) voter,” he added.

Ng ( right ), who is political secretary to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, said there are many similar complaints from other constituencies such as Dato Keramat, where Jagdeep Singh Deo is the assemblyperson.

He advised members of the public to go online to check their status before it is too late, adding that they should not wait until the election is announced to go about the task.

He added he would be making a complaint to SPR soon on Kin’s case so that her voting status could be restored in time for the coming general election, which is not due until 2013, but is expected to be called as early as November.