EC: Illegal to register voters without their knowledge

It is illegal to register a person as a voter without their knowledge, said the Election Commission (EC) yesterday in response to a number of reported cases.

Its chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof (left) said an applicant must personally sign his or her application form and attach a photocopy of the identity card.

He was responding to an allegation on Wednesday from a parent, Tiruchelvam Vallipuram, who complained that his daughter was on the electoral roll although she did not register as a voter.

Tiruchelvam came to know of his daughter's name in the roll when he received a Deepavali card last year from Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who signed it off as Selangor BN chief.

The letter contained his 22-year old daughter's voting details, such as her polling district and constituency.

"My daughter is studying in India. She went there before turning 21 and she definitely could not have registered as a voter.

"I went into the Election Commission's website to check whether she is registered," said Tiruchelvam Vallipuram.

His check confirmed that his daughter is eligible to vote in the Subang Jaya state constituency and the Kelana Jaya parliamentary constituency, both of which are held by Pakatan Rakyat.

EC: There were such complaints before

Tiruchelvam said he contacted his daughter about the matter and she confirmed with him that she did not herself register as a voter.

Abdul Aziz urged Tiruchelvam to provide the full name and identity card number of his daughter so that the EC could search for her application form in its records.

"There have been such complaints in the past but these were few, and when shown their application form, only then they understood (what happened)," he said in his SMS response to Malaysiakini.

However, Abdul Aziz did not elaborate on these previous cases and whether action was taken.

"It would be better if the EC checks first and finds out the real situation. If there is indeed fraud, further action can be taken such as lodging a police report," he said.