KUALA LUMPUR: Umno divisions nationwide have been instructed to set up a special team to carry out voter registration exercise, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said yesterday.
Muhyiddin, who is the Umno deputy president, said Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had called for the setting up of the team prior to going on leave overseas last week.
“Before leaving for overseas, he told me to remind Umno divisions to set up the special team. This is something that the prime minister has stressed on,” he said when opening the Federal Territory Umno Convention here yesterday.
Muhyiddin, who is the FT Umno chairman, said the team, to be headed by Umno chiefs in their respective divisions, would also identify individuals below the age of 21 to be registered as voters upon reaching the voting age.
Muhyiddin said the setting up of such team was crucial because despite the various initiatives, the number of voters registered by Barisan Nasional (BN) was still low compared to those by opposition parties.
“They have been registering new voters and members each month,” he said.
Muhyiddin said that although Umno had been moving swiftly in registering new members and voters, there was still a room for improvement.
This was where the special team could come in, he added.
Muhyiddin said it was also the responsibility of leaders at the divisional level to carry out checks on the electoral rolls to ensure that the voter registration details were correct.
He called on leaders at all levels to take serious note of the matter to ensure that the voter registration exercise was successful. — Bernama