THERE are many things a citizen of this country has little control over, such as the falling ringgit, the rising corruption level, or even the freedom to assemble. 

But every five years, Malaysians get to vote for the leaders of their choice and set the course for the nation.
 
And although the right to vote is enshrined in Article 119 of the Federal Constitution, as many as four million eligible Malaysians have yet to register as voters, due to a sense of hopelessness or apathy.
 
Civil society groups are making a rigorous effort to change this by setting up even more voter registration booths at the pasar malam and malls, where they try to persuade more Malaysians to take part in the electoral process.
 
EVERY VOTE COUNTS 

“There are people who don’t think they need to register to vote. It’s not a priority. They are more concerned about bread and butter issues. 
 
“They cannot connect the issues with their voting rights, because they feel that it’s two different things,” Lena Hendry of the civil society group Watan, told The Malaysian Insight. 
 
She said some young people felt disengaged from the current political scenario and did not think the political parties, whether in Barisan Nasional or the opposition, could change the situation. 
 
“We told them there is no point in complaining and at the end of the day, every vote translates into something,” she said. 

Hendry said Watan also used popular personalities to reach out to the public with the message on the importance of voting. 

She said a joint effort with other groups resulted in 10,000 voter registrations last month. 
 
Another civil society group involved in voter registration, Engage, said one of the main challenges the group faced in its voter registration programmes was getting a letter of support from the Election Commission (EC) to set up a registration counter.

“We usually like to set up registration counters at busy places, like popular shopping malls, but many of them require a letter of support from the EC.
 
“But the EC will only issue the letter if its officers are involved in the exercise. It is not always easy to get the EC,” said Engage chairperson and social activist Thomas Fann.

“So the lack of assistant registration officers was another big problem.”

Fann said every vote counted because there were many seats that were marginally won or lost in the last general election.

“If we don’t register and vote, we are letting others decide for us. Look at what happened with Brexit and the recent US presidential election. Many didn’t come out to vote and the results weren’t what many wanted or expected.”
 
Fann said the last Engage campaign in Johor Baru last month netted 1,130 voter registrations.
 
4 MILLION VOTERS YET TO STEP UP

According to the EC, only 13.3 million out of 30 million Malaysian were registered as voters last year. As of February, 4.1 million eligible Malaysians have yet to register to vote.

Rise of Sarawak Efforts’s Ann Teo said gazetting the voters’ names  was not an immediate process and it could take four to six months for the names to be listed on the electoral roll. 
 
“The EC processes the new applicants every quarter of the year with March 31 being the deadline for the first quarter.
 
“What we can do is to tell people to register even if it’s past the March 31 date. They can go to a computerised post office and register themselves now. It doesn’t matter whether or not this year is election year. As long as you are 21 and above, go register,” she said, adding that the next quarter will end on June 30. 
 
She said it was the high costs of traveling to the nearest town or city to register more than apathy or indifference that stopped Sarawakians from signing up to vote.

“People want to register as voters whenever we have our booth in the cities or rural areas. Although the political awareness is still low, in general, people know that they should register,” she said. 

 She said the group held voter registration programmes every last weekend of the month, when they would go to towns within an hour’s  drive of the city.

She said the group had registered 900 voters since the start of the campaign in February. 
 
A group set up by youths and students, Perihatin Politik (Pripol) in the Klang Valley, aims to get as many people as possible to register before the 14th general election. 
 
Since its inception last month, the group has registered about 2,000 voters.

They target unregistered voters at university events, shopping malls and pasar malam. Some of the activities Pripol has held to attract voters are flash mobs, discourses and “sembang santai” (discussion groups).
 
“What we want to do is educate the youths on the importance of voting while creating awareness of the political scene here,” Pripol coordinator Anis Syafiqah, 25, said. 
 
Anis, who is a third-year linguistic student at Universiti Malaya, said a group of five from Pripol and several volunteers hit the streets three days a week to register voters.
 
“It’s not easy to get people to register. We face being shunned by people and we get all kinds of excuses.
 
“Some of them say they are not voting because they don’t know which party to vote for or that they don’t think it’s worthwhile to vote as it will not make a difference,” she said.
 
Anis believes her group will achieve their target of registering 10,000 voters by the end of June, despite the daunting challenges they face. – April 22, 2017.