THE Election Commission (EC) has formed a committee to clean up its electoral roll, in response to complaints regularly raised by the then opposition before the 14th general election.

Newly minted EC chairman Azhar Azizan @ Harun said the committee, which he will chair, would remove the names of deceased voters, as well as those who no longer had citizenship, from the electoral roll. 

From January 1 until June 30 this year, the EC, with the help of the National Registration Department, removed 48,626 voters who had died and 1,208 voters that had lost their citizenship, from the roll. 

“I hope this committee will ensure the rolls are accurate. It is also among the commission’s aims to reform its service and improve its image among the public,” he said in a statement. 

Azhar said that of those removed between January and June, 486 deceased voters and 11 who had lost their citizenship status were struck off from the rolls for four seats where by-elections had been held or will be taking place after GE14. 

They are the Sungai Kandis, Seri Setia, and Balakong state seats, for which by-elections are already over, and the polls for the Port Dickson parliamentary seat, which are on October 13.

“The EC has taken proactive measures to remove the names of voters who have passed away and lost their citizenship status.

“The EC will also determine the existence of a large number of voters in one address,” said Azhar, who was appointed chairman last month.

Other measures include looking at new ways to increase the registration of new voters and a series of meetings with the NRD to ensure the electoral is always updated.

Azhar said others assisting him in the new committee, called the Voter Registration Improvements committee, are the commission secretary, deputy secretaries of operations and strategy, the legal adviser, and the special duty officer to the EC chairman. – October 2, 2018.