THE automatic voter registration system, which will allow voters to cast their ballot from age 18, will be ready by June of next year, said Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman Azmi Sharom.

The former Universiti Malaya law lecturer told a webinar today that some eight million voters will join the current 15 million in the next general election.

Azmi said while progress has been slowed by the Covid-19 outbreak and the movement-control order, he does not discount the possibility that the system may be ready before the Sarawak state election, which must be held by September next year.

“We may get a second wind,” he said of the computerisation process of identifying voters and matching them to their voting locality.

The seminar hosted by election watchdog Bersih 2.0 also featured Kofi Annan Foundation president Alan doss, Sunway University analyst Wong Chin Huat and elections monitor Rise of Sarawak Efforts (ROSE) chairman Ann Teo.

Azmi said the automatic voter registration is part of a package that also includes lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 last year.

He said the opposition “to the previous government”, likely indicating Barisan Nasional, had “insisted” that the two be done together, delaying efforts to introduce young voters to the electoral roll.

The constitutional amendment to lower the voting age, which must receive more than two-thirds support in Parliament, was passed in July 2019.

Meanwhile, Azmi said issues of gerrymandering and more equitable electoral representation cannot be fixed by the EC unless the constitution is amended.

“There’s nothing we can do as long as the constitution is the way it is. The fact that each state has its own number of seats, the fact that Sabah and Sarawak are so special (having more seats compared to other states), the idea of one person one vote is not going to happen.”

He said Perlis is “so tiny” and yet it has three Parliamentary seats despite being “smaller than Bangi.”

“This is the reality we are faced with, what we can do. We are in the process of researching to make it better, (fixing) gerrymandering is what we want to do,” he said.

“Perhaps within the states, the seats are approximate in size. We want to do it by 2026. The constitution can only allow the borders to be redrawn every eight years, or allows Parliament to do something drastic such as adding or removing seats.

“No matter how beautiful our plan is, it depends on how Parliament is in 2026.”

Azmi said ongoing efforts include reducing absentee voting and making it less difficult to vote from overseas.

“Our powers are very limited. It’s not like if someone is giving a kenduri (during an election), we can come in like Rambo and just stop it. But the reality is we can’t. Most of the Election Offences Act is enforced by the police and the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission).”

Azmi was also asked how it was like to work with the new Perikatan Nasional government since the political crisis in February.

“I’ve been in quarantine ever since they came in! So I don’t know,” Azmi replied.

“There should be no difference because our reform plans are based on what is best for democracy in Malaysia and not based on who is in the government.” – May 9, 2020.