Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said, in response to Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching’s claim, said the figure included ARO representatives from government departments, societies and universities nationwide.
“However, the total that was picked by (the MP from) Kulai only focused on the ARO representatives from societies.
“The statement made by Kulai that the reduction of the AROs can result in the failure of registration of new voters can confuse the people and is irresponsible,” she said in a statement today.
Azalina said efforts had been carried out by the EC to draw more eligible citizens to register as voters. This includes outreach programmes at places with a high number of people, such as shopping malls, recreational centres, institutions of higher learning, and training centres.
She added that the EC was also open to invitations to set up a voter registration counter in such places.
Yesterday, Teo had, in a statement, expressed disappointment that there were only 205 AROs in the whole country, considering there were 5,720 AROs in 2011.
She said: “Voter registration should be handled with top priority. It is therefore very disappointing when Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dato’ Sri Azalina binti Othman Said revealed in a parliamentary written reply dated Oct 25, 2017, that as at Sept 30, 2017, there are only 205 Assistant Registrar Officers in the whole of Malaysia, not even 4% of what we used to have in 2011.”
Teo asked: “Is it any surprise that with the 14th general election being just around the corner, we still have close to 3.8 million eligible Malaysians who have yet to register themselves?”
She said the voter registration exercise reached its peak in 2011, where 1,023,170 Malaysians were registered as new voters in that year alone, with 5,720 AROs on duty.
“However, the number of AROs was down to 4,777 in 2012. As a result, the number of new voters registered also dropped by 30% in 2012.
“In 2013, the number of new voters registered was a low of 195,193 because the number of AROs had also decreased further to 1,901,” she said.