January 29, 2008
ALOR STAR, Jan 29 (Bernama) — About 17,000 people who registered as voters in the last quarter of last year may not get to vote if the next general election is held soon.
Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said today the electoral rolls containing the names of these voters, many of them in Kelantan, Kedah and Selangor, might not be ready before then.
The EC had reminded the people to register as voters before September last year to avoid losing their voting right, he told reporters after briefing 100 returning officers from Kedah and Perlis, here.
Abdul Rashid said the names of 500,000 voters, many of them dead or having lost their voting right for giving up their citizenship, had been removed from the electoral rolls.
He also said that the law should be amended to empower the EC to sue those who made unfounded accusations against the EC for publicity or to smear its image.