Sabah lawmakers want briefing on automatic registration of 18-year-olds into electoral roll, says Ongkili

 By Olivia Miwil - November 4, 2021 @ 9:41pm

PENAMPANG: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) wants the Election Commission (EC) to brief lawmakers from Sabah on the automatic registration for 18-year-olds into the electoral roll.

Its president Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili said while the party welcomed the registration of 18-year-old as voters, it strongly disagrees that it should be done automatically, considering the polluted electoral roll in Sabah, as proven in the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on the large presence of illegal immigrants in the state.

"As such, we want EC to brief us (Sabah members of parliament and assemblymen) on what are their precautionary steps to ensure that only genuine Sabahans are registered as voters," he said after the party's supreme council meeting at its headquarters here.

Ongkili, who is also a Kota Marudu member of parliament, said there had been evidence as stated in the RCI report on the existence of phantom voters.

He added that those phantom voters were holders of genuine identification cards obtained through dubious manners.

"It is important to clean up our electoral roll of these phantom voters.

"As much as we want more young voters to take part as decision makers, we do not want the numbers to breed unhealthily," Ongkili, who is also minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs), said.

He added that PBS had also been trying to secure appointments to discuss the matter further with the federal and state EC, but no dates have been given, as yet.

"We hope the EC will call for the briefing soon and provide us with their assurance that the electoral roll is cleaned up before the next election."