Over 4 million eligible voters yet to register, says Bersih
Electoral watchdog launches voter registration campaign called ‘U Campaign’ and aims to spread awareness of the need to vote during the month of March
PETALING JAYA: Electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0 has launched a voter registration campaign urging the over four million eligible voters in the country to register now for the upcoming general election.
Bersih chief Maria Chin Abdullah said the campaign was also aimed at spreading awareness on the need to vote.
“At the moment we are still under-registering our new voters. 4.4 million qualified voters aren’t registered as voters yet and the process has been rather slow.
“Every quarter, there are 170,000 to 180,000 new voters who have not been registered.
“That’s why we felt that this campaign can give a ‘boost’ and we are trying to get as many people as possible to register as voters because this is very important for the coming elections,” she said to reporters during a press conference at the Bersih headquarters today.
Dubbed the “U Campaign”, the push will begin on March 4 in Kuantan and Inanam, Kota Kinabalu, and end on March 25 at Jaya One, Petaling Jaya.
“The reason why it’s called the ‘U Campaign’ is because U means Undi (vote) and U and also means you,” Maria said.
“There are many reasons why people vote and we want to bring this message to ordinary people to say that there is a purpose for us being voters.
“Therefore we are declaring March as voter registration month to give a big push for everyone to register and hopefully everyone gets the idea.”
Meanwhile, Bersih deputy chairperson Shahrul Mohd Aman Saari said the campaign would run in March as that was when the Election Commission (EC) would start processing new registrations for the year.
“Each new registration will take up to six months to process and gazette.
“March 31 will be the last day when Malaysians can register to vote if the 14th general election is to take place in September this year.”
Shahrul also took a swipe at the EC, saying its inefficiency at registering voters had left Bersih with no choice but to “fill in the gap”.
“The EC has made the voter registration process unnecessarily difficult and drawn out. This is one of its fundamental roles and yet it is not even able to carry out its basic responsibilities.
“Since voting is a major part of the democratic process, Bersih 2.0 is stepping in to fill the gap by embarking on the ‘U Campaign’.”
However, Shahrul also welcomed the EC’s cooperation for Bersih’s latest initiative.
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“If the EC is truly serious about fulfilling its duty, we invite them to collaborate with Bersih 2.0 in this push for voter registration.”