EC considering automatic change of voting constituencies

The Election Commission (EC) is considering setting up its own database system to enable automatic change of voting constituencies, which can curb the problem of overlapping or double voter registration.

Berita Harian today quoted EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof  as saying the new system would link the EC database with several agencies, including the Inland Revenue Board and utility providers such as Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) to ensure the electors’ voting addresses are the same as their residence addresses.

If the voters change their residence addresses, the software would automatically update their voting addresses to the new residence addresses, Aziz said.

Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof

He said the number of voters who do not reside at their voting address was very high and it created the controversy of overlapping or double registration.

Currently the management of voter registration and verification is wholly based on the database of the National Registration Department.

“If they change their residential addresses in their identity cards but do not inform the EC, we can’t do anything because according to the laws, the voters have to apply to us to change their voting addresses,” he is quoted as saying.

The setting-up of a new database could also help to resolve the issue of phantom voters alleged by certain quarters.

Aziz further explained that the EC would also look at Singapore’s voter database system as reference.

“In Sinagapore, when any database detects a change in a voter’s residence address, it will immediately inform the nation’s election agency, and the voting address of that voter will be changed automatically,” he added.