The Election Commission will conduct a month-long campaign from June 1 to June 30 to allow all registered voters to verify the accuracy of their voting particulars.

This campaign is part of the EC’s effort to clean up the electoral roll comprising 12.6 million voters registered up till 31 Dec 2011. Any inaccuracies with respect to name, identity card number, gender, address and ward (locality of voting) should be reported so that the EC can make the necessary correction.

The Association for the Promotion of Human Rights (Proham) urged Malaysians to make use of these special facilities now being provided by the EC as the electoral roll can be substantially improved with the full cooperation of all voters.

It is important that everyone understands the necessity of checking their details, said Proham, the social watchdog established by former Suhakam members.

Proham representatives had met with EC chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof and other officials of the commission on June 1 in Putrajaya to present their recommendations on electoral reform.

Ramon Navaratnam, the moderator of the June 21 Proham roundtable discussion, presented a report based on the findings of the dialogue on ‘Parliamentary Select Committee Report & Bersih demands: The Way Forward before GE13’.

Ramon and his team comprising Dr Denison Jayasooria and Kon Onn Sein highlighted five key findings to the EC. They are:

First, the EC and the federal government need to focus their attention on the electoral reform agenda and avoid digressing to other issues pertaining to the Bersih 3.0 demonstrations of April 28.

Second, to establish a follow-up monitoring committee of the parliamentary select committee to supervise the 22 electoral reform points as proposed in the PSC report and the additional proposals made by Bersih. There is also a need to adopt a timeframe and roadmap for implementation.

Third, to appoint a supervisory unit consisting of EC representatives and election monitoring groups from civil society – such as Bersih, Mafrel and Tindak Malaysia who are interested in improving the electoral system. This unit work with the PSC monitoring units that will oversee the cleaning up of the election rolls before the coming general election.

Fourth, there is an urgent need for the EC to communicate more effectively with the public and to provide as much information as needed to address the complaints of irregularity or fraud.

Proham also brought up the case of 50 voters having Indonesian names with the MyKad code 71 (indicating foreign-born) in Kampung Melayu Majidee who were registered last year with no house number or street names.

Proham said the authorized agency or person acting as assistant registrar who processed the applications must explain the circumstances in which such voters were collected and processed without their full address noted.

These recent voter registrations were deemed suspicious because all the Malaysian-born citizens living in the same Kampung Melayu Majidee were, in comparison, registered with complete addresses prior to 2011.

Proham wants the NRD to cooperate with EC to clarify the citizenship details of these voters and the duration of their residence in Malaysia.

Also of public interest, said Proham, was the 3,457 voters transferred out of the DAP parliamentary constituency of Klang as alleged by its Member of Parliament Charles Santiago.

Fifth, Proham called on the EC to work with Attorney-General’s office, the Bar Council, Bersih and the PSC to make such amendments in the law as is necessary to implement the proposed monitoring unit immediately.

The association requested the government to give all such powers needed to remove dubious voters from the main electoral roll within a timeframe of one month and to undertake the cleaning process on a continuous basis.

EC chairman Abdul Aziz in his reply said the PSC recommendations had already included a call for the parliamentary select committee to be made a permanent agency.

He added that there is an initiative to set up a monitoring committee through the office of de facto law minister Nazri Aziz, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, as well as to set up a supervisory unit within the EC which will include civil society representatives to follow up on the reform agenda.

In this context Proham will be given a role to play.

The association has additionally pledged to undertake a monitoring progress by hosting regular roundtable discussions on electoral reform with the PSC, EC, Bersih and civil society.