DAP’s Kampung Tunku assemblyperson Lau Weng San wonders whether the Election Commission (EC) is only interested in registering a particular creed of citizens as voters.

Lau asked this after noting that the EC last year conducted voter registration exercises in mosques, UiTM and Mara-linked college campuses, as well as at military, police and government buildings.

This, he claimed, took place despite the EC largely rejecting or not responding to invitations and applications from Pakatan Harapan for it to conduct similar registrations at other venues with more diverse racial-religious demographics.

"The Election Commission of Malaysia must not only act fair and independent, but must also be seen to act fair and independent, not only in conducting elections but also in simple processes such as registering new voters," Lau said at a press conference in Petaling Jaya today.

He said he was at the EC Selangor branch office on Oct 13 last year and saw the state EC's pre-planned activities for that month, of which he took a picture.

In October alone, he noted, the EC opened registration booths at Perbadanan Prima @Perbadanan Prima, Putrajaya, IPD Sg Buloh, Mara (GMI) Kajang, Masjid Hasanah in Bangi, UiTM Shah Alam, TUDM Subang, Masjid At-Taqwa in Selayang Baru, Masjid Nurul Iman in Rawang and Masjid Al-Ridhuan in Ampang.

While he commended the EC's hard work in registering new voters outside its offices last year, Lau said the places picked made it seem as if the commission was only interested in registering voters from a particular race or religion.

He said Pakatan Harapan has been, since 2016, inviting the EC to conduct various voter-registration exercise in places where there would be potentially high numbers of unregistered youngsters, but the requests were turned down or not given any response.

"I wish EC will be more proactive in engaging with the various parties in registering new voters. After all, we are just volunteers to assist EC in carrying out its constitutional duty," he said.

Harapan has often accused the EC of dragging its feet when it comes to registering new voters, with some parties claiming that this may be an attempt to prevent many who are anti-establishment from being registered as voters.

However, the EC always maintains that it is doing its best in performing its duties, as mandated by its governing laws and the constitution.