Malaysia must introduce a system to automatically register Malaysians who reach the age of 21 as voters.

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said the move was important because a large number of Malaysians do not take the initiative to register themselves as voters when they reached 21, although various efforts and campaigns are carried out by the government and political parties.

“Every time a voter registration campaign is held there are new voters who register themselves but even then a large number of eligible citizens have not registered as voters.

“Since we cannot force anyone to register, the problem can be eliminated through an automatic voter registration system,” he said after attending a forum themed ‘Rights vs Security: To Strike a Balance’ in Putrajaya today.

Khairy, who is also the Rembau Member of Parliament, was commenting on a report that quoted Election Commission (EC) chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof as saying three million eligible Malaysians who have yet to register themselves can do so by June 30, to be eligible if the general election was held after August.

- Bernama