KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin described PAS as being ‘too orthodox’ for rejecting the biometric system which the Election Commission (EC) plans to introduce to address alleged existence of phantom voters in the electoral roll.
He said the proposal by the EC was to improve on the voter registration and verification system and to address numerous misunderstandings arising from claims made by opposition parties.
PAS should not reject the system hastily and should instead give the EC a chance to submit their proposal and discuss the matter with all parties prior to implementing it, Muhyiddin said.
“They are too orthodox in their thinking. The proposal is to bring improvements to the system and to overcome numerous misunderstandings, which give rise to the notion as if the electoral roll is not clean, as if it has phantom voters or duplicate names.
“They should be reasonable. But if the party is (adamant on rejecting the system), then it is so characteristic of PAS to reject anything that is good,” he told reporters after launching the ‘school in hospital’ programme at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, here.
Muhyiddin also rejected claims that the new system was a political approach, and stressed that it was to resolve allegations of phantom voters and duplicate names as well as to improve the overall election system in the country.
He added that the EC had also proposed numerous other improvements including carrying out checks and clean-ups of the electoral roll by delisting the names of those who have died. — Bernama