MALAYSIANS above the age of 21 must immediately register as voters or they may not be able to vote in the 14th general election, an election watchdog said.

Watan, a local non-partisan activist group championing electoral awareness among youth, believes that voters who have not registered this year may well have already lost their chance to vote in GE14,  if it is held in March. The polls must be called by August.

The group estimates that it takes about four months from the time a voter registers until he or she is listed in the supplementary electoral roll through the demand-and-objection process by the Election Commission (EC).

This means if elections are held before April, those who have not registered this year, will not be able to vote.

“Registration can be done at any time. But the question is whether a person who registers in December this year will make it into the master electoral roll if the general election is called in March,” said Watan executive director Masjaliza Hamzah.

The 14th general election must be called by August next year.

The present Barisan Nasional federal government is in power only until June. The polls can be called within 60 days after that.

Masjaliza said those who have yet to register as voters should do so immediately, or risk being excluded in the electoral roll.

“They cannot tell, as nobody knows when the polls will be called,” she told The Malaysian Insight.

“It has been proposed to the EC in the past to automatically register voters as soon as they reach 21 years old.

“This is not forcing citizens to vote. It is just to ensure their names are already in the electoral roll, should they want to do their duty and vote.”

Apart from Watan, Islamist party PAS’ Youth wing has also been focusing its efforts on attracting youth to register as voters, including inviting the EC to set up voter registration booths in mosques and pasar malam.

The Islamist party wing is also using social messaging app WhatsApp to spread the message on its voter registration campaign, reminding people that the deadline to register is the fourth quarter of this year.

“We also predict that this is the deadline to register.

“If it is true the election is in March next year, then the registration has to be done this month (December),” said Mohd Nakhie Naka, the PAS Youth leader in charge of new voter registrations.

As of March, 3.77 million Malaysians of voting age and living in the country had yet to register with the commission, said EC chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah.

Two-thirds are youth aged 21 to 30, the EC said.

The Malaysian Insight’s attempt to seek clarification from the EC chairman on the process involved in registering voters was unsuccessful.

According to the Elections (Registration of Electors) Regulations 2002, the supplementary electoral roll shall be revised once every three months.

Masjaliza told The Malaysian Insight there was simply too little information regarding voter-registration procedures with many unaware of the steps needed to vote in GE14.

Watan has been organising public events to educate the public, including working with local celebrities, such as Marina Mahathir, Daphne Iking and Remy Ishak, but admitted its reach has been limited.

“The response has not been encouraging. It is not like in the last polls in 2013,” Masjaliza said, adding that there are still 2.5 million youths aged 21 to 30 still unregistered as voters in the second quarter of 2017.

“A reason for this may be youth today see elections as something very distant from their lives. Perhaps they are also uninterested in the current political options.

“But as citizens, we must register as voters. Register early or do it now so you can go to the ballot box.” – December 29, 2017.