EC purges 380,000 names of dead voters

THE Election Commission (EC) has removed 388,098 names of dead voters from the electoral roll from 2017 to Aug 31.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Hanipa Maidin said these included 91,154 names taken off the registry from January to Aug 31.

He added that in 2017, 179,118 names of dead voters were removed from the list, while 117,826 were taken off last year.

Hanipa said the same was done for those who relinquished or were stripped of their citizenship.

“The updates were done based on information by the National Registration Department.

“This was to ensure that the election process is clean and done transparently,” he said, replying to a question by Khoo Poay Tiong (PH-Kota Melaka) in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday on steps taken by EC to update the voter registration.

Hanipa said 11,799 and 3,496 voters, who were stripped of their citizenship, were taken off the list in 2017 and last year. Another 3,940 were deregistered from January to Aug 31.

He added that EC was working with the police and armed forces to address the issues of retired officers who were registered as early voters.

“Among the steps taken is to update the public locality in the EC to ensure that they vote as normal voters when there is a general election or by-election.”

To a supplementary question by Datuk Noraini Ahmad (BNParit Sulong), Hanipa said EC would try to implement the automatic voter registration system before the 15th General Election.