PETALING JAYA (Oct 26, 2007): Political party officials who are appointed by the Election Commission (EC) as temporary assistant registrars to register new voters can only do just that.
"They are not allowed to make other changes or change the addresses of registered voters which would alter their voting constituency," said EC Deputy Chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar.
When contacted he said: "No third party can make changes to voters' addresses. This is to prevent the possibility of changes being made to addresses without the knowledge of the voters.
"Only a voter can change their own address," he stressed. If we allow assistant registrars to make such changes, the situation may become chaotic because certain quarters may influence people to change their address for self interest."
Wan Ahmad said changes of address can only be made by EC officers and at post offices.
He said there are five million people who are eligible to vote but are unregistered and temporary assistant registrars have been appointed to help register them.
"There is no way they can cheat when registering new voters as the EC will counter check the details of new voters submitted by the registrars with that in the National Registration Department (NRD)," he said.
Wan Ahmad was commenting on a case highlighted by the DAP Selangor Secretary Lau Weng San today where a voter, Johnny Soon who had filled out a form to make changes to his address at a booth set up by MCA found that no amendments were made a year later.
Soon complained to Lau that he and his wife had been residents of Subang Jaya for over 23 years prior to moving to Mutiara Damansara.
On Oct 28, 2006, both of them filled out a form (Borang A) at the MCA voters registration booth in 1-Utama Shopping Centre to change their voting address but they were never informed about their status until Oct 4 when they checked the EC website and found they were still registered as Kelana Jaya voters.
Soon said details of his 27-year-old daughter who had registered to be a new voter were also not online.
"I sent an e-mail to the EC on this matter and they promptly replied that temporary assistant registrars are not allowed to make changes to voters address, but are only allowed to register new voters," he said.
"I don’t know how many other people are facing the same proble because they may be reluctant to make it public, said Soon.
"I don’t mind going back to vote in Subang Jaya but what happens when someone has to go all the way back to another state just because of this predicament?" he asked.
Lau later commented that all temporary assistant registrar are trained and appointed by EC.
"There is no way why the MCA team cannot inform Soon immediately on the spot that they cannot register voters who wish to change their voting address," he said.
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