Dr M: Citizens' Declaration has more than one million signatures

More than one million signatures have been collected for the Citizens’ Declaration, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad revealed today.

"It is now two months (since the Citizen's Declaration was first announced).

"Within the two months, we have collected more than one million (signatures)," Mahathir told a press conference in Putrajaya this afternoon.

The total number of signatures collected so far is 1.27 million.

Out of that number, 1.07 million signatures were gathered online while another 200,000 were collected through forms distributed so far.

The declaration seeks the removal of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak from office.

Also, another 50,000 signatures have been collected at an alternative site, Change.org.

Mahathir added that the 200,000 physical copies of the signed declaration make up an early count, as there are still more copies scattered all over the country and the process of collecting them is still going on.

"We don't accept just anything. We check every name, signature and identification card number.

"(There are) some forms online, where they did not fill in properly. We suspect they are not genuine.

"We have rejected 253,000 of these forms, which we think are not genuine.

"When I mentioned just now that we have 1.27 million signatures, they are those that have been checked and they are here," the country’s longest-serving prime minister said, referring to the stacks of papers on the table.

He explained that this was to prevent anyone casting doubts on the Citizens’ Declaration campaign and added that anybody could check whatever the team has gathered.

To personally deliver signatures to Agong

Mahathir said he would personally deliver the 1.27 million signatures to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong.

Though he has yet to seek an audience with the Agong, he said he would do so as soon as possible.

There are also plans to seek an audience with the Conference of Rulers.

The original goal was to gather one million signatures by the end of the year and though the goal has been achieved, Mahathir said the collection of signatures for the petition will continue.

Asked what their next step would be, should they fail in their aim with the Citizens’ Declaration petition, the nonagenarian coyly said they have plans that they could not reveal just yet.

Mahathir, along with former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, opposition and NGO figures inked the declaration on March 4.

The declaration calls for the removal of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak from office and for the institution of reforms in the country.