Bersih to help find way to have proper address system for voters

Bersih 2.0 has found discrepancies in addresses given by people when they register to vote in elections, with a huge number of voters found at the same address. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 is concerned about people giving accurate addresses when registering to vote.

In a statement today, it said what was of great concern is the inability to verify the genuineness of these addresses and whether such properties even exist.

“Fraudulent registration of voters at non-existent addresses and packing a large number of voters into a single address are prevalent.

“Unless audits of the electoral roll are carried out, such abuses will go undetected,” it said, adding that the absence of a unique identifier for addresses undermined the integrity of the data.

Bersih said it is organising a workshop on “Establishing a Unique Address Registration System” to explore ways to solve this problem on Nov 25 and 26.

It also wants to explore the viability of setting up a registry that is similar to the UK’s Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) in Malaysia.

For this workshop, Bersih, together with the Electoral Reform Committee, and housing and local government ministry, is bringing together foreign experts from the UK and Australia, public sector data providers and users, private sector users of addresses, ICT experts and civil society groups who rely on good addresses to carry out their work.

It hopes the exchanges at this workshop would spur the government and key agencies to make this registry a reality and resolve the problem of having proper addresses, once and for all. - FMT