It does not mean that the electoral roll is “dirty” just because there are 42,051 dubious names in it, according to the Election Commission (EC).

NONE This "only" translates to 0.3 percent, EC chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof told a press conference after chairing a briefing for MPs in Parliament House today.

"Where in the world is there an electoral roll that is 100 percent accurate?" he asked, stressing that it was "impossible".

"When the NRD (National Registration Department) tried to contact them, there was no response. But the EC cannot just delete their names unless it is certified that they are dead."

He said the NRD has only managed to clear the status of 301 voters in the ‘doubtful’ list.

Difficult task

The EC had sent the master electoral roll of 12.6 million voters to the NRD last December, to ensure there are no "double registrations, deceased and foreigners", after which the 42,051 were found to be doubtful.

"NRD cannot ascertain their status... and under the law the EC cannot delete the names, unless there is evidence," he explained.

He pointed out that the NRD has found several voters in the list recently, when they had stepped forward to redeem the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) payments in Penang.

"Then we found out that they exist. It's not easy to delete names," he said.

"There are countries where it worse. We want it to be clean as well but our hands our tied.

"If we want to delete, we must have proof that the voter is dead, unsound mind, or in prison. We cannot be discretionary," said Abdul Aziz.

EC yet to discuss PSC report

One of the 22 recommendation by the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reform was the setting up of a special parliamentary select committee to supervise and scrutinise all efforts to revive and clean up the electoral roll.

The suggestion was put forth after a PSC-commissioned Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems (MIMOS) study revealed defects in the electoral database.

The study showed that there were 79,098 voters registered in 354 addresses, with at least 100 voters in each address.

Asked on the progress of implementation of the PSC recommendation, Abdul Aziz said the commission will be meeting on Thursday to discuss the report which was tabled in Parliament on April 3.