The National Registration Department (NRD) explained today that the three purported holders of green identity cards found in the electoral roll by PAS are citizens.
It said it did not deliberately change the status of the individuals in the NRD's publicly accessible database in response to the party's expose.
Rather, its spokesperson Jainisah Mohd Noor said, the three were removed from the database as part of upgrading work by the department.
"Previously, if someone had collected his or her identity card years ago, a search on the system would still return the result that the card had been collected.
"This led to confusion, with many thinking the cards were only recently issued, so we decided to upgrade the system and remove entries where cards have been collected," Jainisah told Malaysiakini today.
Previously, if a card had been collected, the system would return a result showing this, as well as the colour of the identity card that was issued.
Citizens are issued blue identity cards (now, MyKad), permanent residents get red cards (MyPR) while temporary residents get green identity cards (MyKas).
Coincidentally, the system upgrade happened the day after PASrevealed that three voters were, on the NRD website, shown to be holders of green identity cards.
Numi Syukri, Hamidah Surahbil and Jamaluddin Tahir were listed as voters in Selangor and Terengganu, raising further suspicion of phantom voters, particularly after the sudden 'disappearance' of these names from the NRD website.
Citizenships granted in 2008
However, Jainisah said, checks showed that the three individuals had been granted citizenship around the same time as 27-year-old voter Yusnati Haris Laksamana.
Yusnati was listed on the NRD website as a green identity card holder, but the NRD's subsequent checks showed that she was granted citizenship in 2008, and that its publicly available database is outdated.
Clarifying further today, Jainisah said the purpose of the checking system on the NRD website was only for applicants to check whether their cards were ready.
The database should not be used to verify if someone is a citizen or not, she said, and that credible information on this could only be found on the NRD database that is not available to the public.
The officer added that all political parties wanting to verify such information when scrutinising the electoral roll should direct their queries to the Election Commission.
The EC uses the NRD's agency link up system (Alis), which provides the commission access to the same non-public database.
"But if individuals have problems, they can contact us at our offices to verify their own status, as we can only reveal such information to the holder of the identity card," Jainisah added.
It said it did not deliberately change the status of the individuals in the NRD's publicly accessible database in response to the party's expose.
Rather, its spokesperson Jainisah Mohd Noor said, the three were removed from the database as part of upgrading work by the department.
"Previously, if someone had collected his or her identity card years ago, a search on the system would still return the result that the card had been collected.
"This led to confusion, with many thinking the cards were only recently issued, so we decided to upgrade the system and remove entries where cards have been collected," Jainisah told Malaysiakini today. Previously, if a card had been collected, the system would return a result showing this, as well as the colour of the identity card that was issued.
Citizens are issued blue identity cards (now, MyKad), permanent residents get red cards (MyPR) while temporary residents get green identity cards (MyKas).
Coincidentally, the system upgrade happened the day after PASrevealed that three voters were, on the NRD website, shown to be holders of green identity cards.
Numi Syukri, Hamidah Surahbil and Jamaluddin Tahir were listed as voters in Selangor and Terengganu, raising further suspicion of phantom voters, particularly after the sudden 'disappearance' of these names from the NRD website.
Citizenships granted in 2008
However, Jainisah said, checks showed that the three individuals had been granted citizenship around the same time as 27-year-old voter Yusnati Haris Laksamana.
Yusnati was listed on the NRD website as a green identity card holder, but the NRD's subsequent checks showed that she was granted citizenship in 2008, and that its publicly available database is outdated.
Clarifying further today, Jainisah said the purpose of the checking system on the NRD website was only for applicants to check whether their cards were ready.
The database should not be used to verify if someone is a citizen or not, she said, and that credible information on this could only be found on the NRD database that is not available to the public.
The officer added that all political parties wanting to verify such information when scrutinising the electoral roll should direct their queries to the Election Commission.
The EC uses the NRD's agency link up system (Alis), which provides the commission access to the same non-public database.
"But if individuals have problems, they can contact us at our offices to verify their own status, as we can only reveal such information to the holder of the identity card," Jainisah added.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.