Bahasa Malaysia Editor
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 — DAP has taken the lead among more than two dozen political parties in the country in the race to register new voters, especially among younger Malaysians, since Election 2008, according to the Election Commission.
EC deputy chairman Datuk Wira Wan Ahmad Wan Omar told The Malaysian Insider that DAP had registered the most number of new voters, followed by Umno, with other parties like PAS, MCA and Gerakan trailing them.
But he did not reveal the exact breakdown of new voters registered respectively by all the political parties.
It is understood that despite the push by DAP and other parties, a total of four million Malaysians, a majority of them under 30, remain unregistered.
"I feel it is DAP that has been the party which has taken advantage of the opportunity given (to appoint assistant voter registrars) and the mood of the public especially among the younger Chinese.
"It is clear from the increase in new voters that it is from the efforts of DAP, compared with Gerakan and MCA which should also take advantage," said Wan Ahmad.
DAP, which received the lion's share of Chinese votes in Election 2008, appears to have taken advantage of the internal problems MCA and Gerakan are facing to register more new voters.
"MCA is facing problems, so MCA has no time to do this work (to register new voters)," said Wan Ahmad while pointing out that party voter registration exercises usually contributed to better electoral results.
"It is common for them to put across their political stand when registering new voters. If they succeed in registering new voters this means they will attract more support during elections. That is the advantage."
DAP is said to be focusing its efforts on west coast states such as Malacca, Perak, Selangor and Penang.
Behind DAP in the voter registration race is Umno which is concentrating its efforts nationwide.
PAS is in third place with its focus on the east coast states of Pahang, Kelantan, Terengganu and also Kedah.
“Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has not registered many. They are just average," said Wan Ahmad.
While he did not reveal how many new voters have been registered respectively by the various parties, he said: "Out of 10 new voters in Malacca, as an example, five are registered by DAP."
Since 2006, political parties have been allowed to appoint assistant registrars, with commissions paid out for each new voter registered.
Such assistant registrars are said to contribute up to 30 per cent of all new voters registered every year.
Recently, the EC revealed that under the latest voter rolls up till September this year, there are now 11,085,863 voters.
In the third quarter of this year, from July until September, there were 67,502 new voters and 14,123 applications to change constituencies because of a change of address.
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