Low voter sign-up rate among undergrads, says EC chairman
KEPALA BATAS: Only less than 10 per cent of undergraduates registered to be voters out of the 30,000 students approached by the Election Commission (EC) as of yesterday.
Its chairman, Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah, said this was worrying as the number of potential voters between the ages of 18 and 39 were among the lowest to register.
He said based on their findings, among the reasons for their refusal to register with the EC were: that they didn’t know how to vote, didn’t know where to register and didn’t want to get involved in politics.
“As the Election Commission, we have a great responsibility in ensuring all youth, including the 2,700 that we managed to register, to come out and vote on election day.
“EC is faced with many challenges to address the issue. We are trying our best to come out with ways to get youth to be involved in the election process,” he said during the launch of the MYSPR SEMAK application.
It is a mobile application for voters to check their regis- tration status.
It will include information, such as voters’ ballot centres and live updates on the election results.
“The application was introduced to curb the spread of false information on polls results by unofficial sources,” said Hashim.
“False information would only create confusion among the public. With MYSPR SEMAK, voters can check via their mobile phones for fast and accurate information (on the polls),” he added.