The government today defended the proposal to require citizens residing overseas to return to Malaysia once in five years to qualify as an absentee voter.

NONE Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Liew Vui Keong ( left ) told Parliament this morning that other countries have similar but stricter measures.

"In Singapore, a citizen must be registered as a voter and be in Singapore for at least 30 days within three years before January of an election year.

"This is very strict because they don't even know when the election will be held," he said.

Liew was responding to a question from Anthony Loke (DAP-Rasah) who queried if imposing conditions for voters overseas to vote is unconstitutional.

Adding, Liew said Australia too requires citizens to return to the country once in three years to qualify as voters.

"For Thailand, a citizen must be in their constituency for at least three months and must register as an overseas voter before a specified closing date.

"And for the US, a citizen must register as an absentee voter and is required to pay outstanding income tax to the government and update their overseas address every year," he said.

However, Liew reiterated that the condition for Malaysians to return every five years in order to qualify as absentee voter is still just a suggestion.

"The suggestion brought by the Election Commission (EC) is still under EC's consideration... whether it will be accepted will be evaluated," he said.

Liew also revealed that according to the second-quarter electoral roll this year, gazetted on Aug 16, 2012, the number of voters has reached 13,052,274.

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