Permanent Resident Becomes Citizen ... In Four Hours!

From Malaysiakini:

Less than four hours after Malaysiakini reported that a permanent resident (PR) holding a red MyPR card had been registered as a new voter, she has apparently become a citizen.

She now has a blue Mykad, based on a check of the same online system of the National Registration Department (NRD) where her identification details are recorded.

A check of the NRD online verification system twice - at 5.48pm yesterday and 11.30am today - had shown that a person named Mismah was a PR holder who had collected her MyPR card (No. 640704715238), an identification card for PR.

When the same number was entered into the Election Commission (EC) online verification system, Mismah appeared as a newly-registered voter.

However, another check with the NRD system at 3pm returned a shocking result - the same Mismah has become a citizen who has collected her blue Mykad.

Her status on the EC online verification system remained the same as at 3pm - a newly-registered voter in the latest supplementary electoral roll draft which is now on display for public scrutiny.

Despite the fact that non-citizens cannot be registered as voters, she was registered in the Ijok state constituency and Kuala Selangor parliamentary constituency, which are respectively held by Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid from PKR and Dzulkelfy Ahmad from PAS.

It appeared that Mismah's is not an isolated case.

Federal Territory PAS has claimed to have encountered 52 such cases when filing complaints with the Federal Territory EC today about the supplementary electoral roll draft .

Titiwangsa PAS division secretary Hedzer Ibrahim, who went to the EC office with other party leaders, said the first check with the NRD online verification system from 9-10am today showed that the 52 were PR who had collected their red MyPR card.

However, when the PAS team conveyed the result to the Federal Territory EC officials about 3pm, the latter checked the NRD database and found the 52 names to be those of citizens.

Hedzer then instructed the party technician to check the NRD online system again and obtained the same surprising result.

Fortunately PAS had screen-captured the result accessed this morning and a copy was given toMalaysiakini.

The 52 voters are registered in six parliamentary constituencies in Kuala Lumpur that were won by the opposition in the last general election.

These are Lembah Pantai (6 voters), Bandar Tun Razak (1), Segambut (5), Titiwangsa (28), Batu (8) and Wangsa Maju (4).

Malaysiakini is attempting to seek comment from the NRD.

Voter registration procedures

According to election laws, the EC updates the electoral roll every three months with a quarterly supplementary electoral roll draft.

The names of all newly-registered voters, voters who have changed their residing addresses and voters who have been removed from the electoral roll, are compiled in the supplementary electoral roll draft.

The roll is then displayed usually for one week, for public scrutiny, before it is gazetted and used in the next election.

During the display period, members of the public can raise their objection to the names listed in the supplementary electoral roll.

Allegations of foreigners being illegally registered as voters to shore up the support of certain political parties have been continually raised by the opposition parties but constantly denied by the EC.

EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof has said thatonly citizens are allowed to be registered as voters, and that verification is done through the Agency Link-Up System (Alis) of the NRD.

Through the system, the EC cross-checks with NRD and employs 33 types of vetting before any application to become a voter can be approved.

“During the registration process, the applicant's identifier will be cross-checked with the NRD through Alis. The EC will only process the application if the details tally with the NRD records," he said.

“The system will automatically reject any fraudulent attempts to register a voter."