Government 'can consider' automatic voter registration, says PM

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today said that the Government 'can consider' automatic registration for voters above 21 years.

However, Najib said that a decision on the matter has yet to be reached.

Najib, in a response this morning to a question from Mersing MP Datuk Dr Latiff Ahmad, however said that making voting compulsory was not a practical idea.

"Whatever laws we make must be enforceable. This we must ensure. We need to see if it is practicle."

"I dont think making it compulsory for people to vote is enforceable but automatic registration can be considered but the government has not finalised this yet," he said.

Automatic voter registration wad one of the demands of electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0. The Government previously did not indicate if it would implement such a system.

It had reasoned that ultimately it was entirely up to Malaysians whether they wanted to vote.

Previously, the-then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz had said that enforcing automatic registration would be too “complicated” and might affect the percentage of voters in a general election.

Meanwhile, DAP's Rasah MP Anthony Loke welcomed Najib's announcement but at the same time said that groups will be watching if the government really took this seriously.

"We are supportive of this as this was one of the recommendations of the Parliamentary Select Committee(PSC) on electoral reform," said Loke, who was an Opposition member in that PSC.

However, Loke cautioned that the government must look into the issue of changing addresses on identity cards.

"It is currently very easy for someone to change his or her address, you don't even have to prove it. That should be looked into if we want to have automatic voter registration," he said. Loke said that the issue of cleaning up the voter roll is also another matter that must be done.