Malaysia’s Election Commission is one of the most inefficient in the world as I had been calling for automatic registration of voters as far back as 1971 – 46 years ago, when I first entered Parliament.

Today with all the technological advancements of Information Technology, there are still over four million eligible voters who have not been registered as voters on the electoral roll – which means that if these over four million eligible voters do not register in the next three weeks in March, they are unlikely to be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote in the 14th General Elections if held in September this year.

I just cannot understand why our IT expertise and capability is so backward that the Election Commission needs six months to process voters registration so that an eligible voter could vote in an election.

If other countries can have top-class IT systems which allow voters to register today and cast their vote tomorrow, why is the Election Commission’s IT system so antediluvian that it needs six months before a Malaysian voters can register and have the right to cast their vote in an election.

I hope the Election Commission Chairman can give a satisfactory explanation for this shocking state of affairs about voters registration, which does not seem to have made any progress since the attainment of Merdeka 60 years ago in 1957!

Is it really beyond the expertise and capability of the Election Commission to ensure that it could process voters’ registration, if not within a week, at least within a month, and not take the inordinately long process of six months – and to implement it immediately, if the Election Commission rejects the option of automatic registration of voters?

The Election Commission Chairman should give a clear and specific answer to this question.

[Speech (2) at a dialogue with young Malaysians in Bukit Beruang during the launch of the Voters’ Registration campaign on Monday, 6th March 2017 at 6 pm]