KUALA LUMPUR: The government is not in favour of an automatic voter registration for Malaysians who have reached 21 years of age as it will intrude into the freedom of individuals, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.

He said the government subscribed to the Rule of Law and that it was wrong to force people to register as voters especially if they were uninterested to do so.

"We cannot force people to vote during an election. As such, we exercise freedom of association, freedom of expression and freedom to make decisions," Nazri told the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday, March 18, when replying to a supplementary question from Fong Po Kuan (Batu Gajah-DAP) who wanted to know if the government planned to have an automatic voter registration.

Fong said it was among the proposals made by the Election Commission (EC) and that the government should have the political will to implement such a method of voter registration as it saved cost and reduced bureaucracy.

Nazri pointed out that the government would continue with its existing policies on voter registration, adding that it was also continuing efforts to encourage Malaysians, especially the younger generation, to be on the electoral roll.

"If the youths do not want to come to registration centres, we can take the registration centres to them, such as at shopping complexes," he added.

He also said while those as young as 18 years were allowed to join political parties, the right to vote in accordance with Article 119 (1) of the Federal Constitution applied to Malaysians 21 years and above.

"The government is of the opinion that the age of maturity for a Malaysian citizen is 21 years," said Nazri who is de facto law minister. In his question, Datuk Md Sirat Abu (Bukit Katil-BN) had asked if the government planned to standardise the age of both political party membership and voting right.

In an immediate response to Nazri's statement, Kedah Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang disagreed with Nazri, saying that an automatic voter registration did not equate to forcing Malaysians to vote.

"With due respect to our minister in the Prime Minister's Department, the proposal for automatic voters registration would not force any Malaysians to vote.

"There is no sensible requirement to force all Malaysians to vote under such an automatic voter registration system. Even the current manual voter registration system does not force those who had registered as voters to vote," he said in a statement.

On the contrary, Tan said it would be an ideal system that would give all Malaysians an "option to vote" and that the current system restricted voters to only those who had registered with the EC.

He said as was previously announced by the EC, there were some 28% or 4.39 million Malaysians over the age of 21 years old who had yet to register as voters as at the end of last year.

Tan also said the current manual voters' registration system by EC was a costly exercise and a waste of tax payers' money.

He added that "democracy should be practised from the voice of all Malaysians and not only those who had registered with the EC".

"As in my previous proposal to the government, I would hope that the government would reconsider allowing "automatic registration for Malaysians who attain 21 years old" and the default constituency should be based on the last known address given by the national registration department unless it is updated by the voters within one  year before the election date," he said.