Referring to Bersih chief Maria Chin Abdullah’s claim that unnamed groups were trying to prevent certain people from registering as voters, Wan Ahmad Omar pointed out that every citizen had the right to file an objection against any voter’s registration.
“I really don’t understand what Maria is talking about because while Malaysians can register as voters, they have the right to file objections too,” he said.
“This is clearly stated in the Elections (Registration of Electors) Regulations of 2002.”
On Wednesday, Maria alleged that certain quarters were exploiting a provision in the regulations that allows objections to be made against the registration of new voters.
“There will always be people disputing the authenticity of a voter’s address and, as a result, they will file an objection,” Wan Ahmad told FMT. “Any Malaysian has the right to object to any name that appears in the electoral roll if he has doubts.”
Once an objection is filed, the registered person has to attend an EC inquiry to show evidence that he or she is a legitimate voter in the constituency of registration. When the individual is proven to be a genuine voter in the constituency, the one who filed the objection must then give him or her a compensation of RM100.
According to Maria, however, there had been many cases in which bona fide voters had not received the compensation.
She said the process was subject to abuse because people could file as many objections as they wanted in order to disqualify registered voters.
An official of an NGO called Kuasa told FMT the EC must establish whether Maria’s complaint was legitimate.
“If a person files 10 objections and in nine cases the voters are legitimate, then it’s an abuse of process,” Kuasa chief executive officer Praba Ganesan said.
“But this must first be verified by the EC. If the complainants can show that the objections were unfair, I think the EC should address this issue.”
Kuasa was formed in 2014 to empower groups and individuals who want to become agents for change.
Praba said the EC must repair its damaged image, noting that the general public was constantly questioning the validity of elections in the country.
“In short, the people can’t move on and this is not healthy for the country in the long run,” he said.