Automatic Voter Registration Not Possible Yet, Says Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 (Bernama) -- The Election Commission (EC) is not able to carry out automatic voter registration yet as it can cause problems to voters, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
He said a problem would arise if a voter had not registered his change of address with the National Registration Department (NRD).
"Although the person now lives at another address, he will still be registered as a voter using the address that appears on his identity card or in the NRD data."
Abdullah said this in his written reply to Liew Chin Tong (DAP-Bukit Bendera) who asked whether the government would introduce automatic voter registration to enable four million young people to become voters.
The prime minister said such voter registration would go against the constitutional requirement with regards to a voter's actual place of residence when he had already moved out to another place.
"When there is a general election, the voter will have a problem in ascertaining his polling centre as his name is not listed in the voters' list for his area of residence."
Abdullah said it was feared that if voters moved out from their old addresses without informing the NRD, many would not return to cast their votes if they were now residing in places far away from their polling centres.
"If the voter turnout in some constituencies decline due to this, it will also affect the country's image in the eyes of the world," he said.
Asked whether the government would form a royal commission for reform of the general election, to ensure it is clean, free and fair, he said the EC's methods were according to the legal framework and stipulated election regulations.
"Based on these, the EC had been conducted clean, free and fair elections in the country," he said.

tunku : what a lousy answer by pak lah. so what if the voters address has changed, the voter still know his address as in his identity card,he can change the address later if he wants too.about the voter won't know where his voting centre will be, this is not 1980s or early 1990s. there are many sources to check where the voting centre is.the government should really consider to implement the automatic voter registration soon.