How to get registered ah??

I've been asked this question quite a number of times...friends, forums, colleagues. So I would like to just jot it down here so that I don't need to repeat it like a parrot.

So, to get yourself registered, just fill up a form. Sign it with your partner, submit it to the registrar in order for the form to be put up for one month in case ex-bfs or ex-gfs or family members object...

Wait a minute. You think I will put up a guide on the hows of getting your marriage registered? I meant getting yourself registered as a voter lah!

I am not going to be bothered with people who refuse to haul their sorry ass off their comfortable seats to even bother registering, let alone to vote. So, for those of you who think you have a duty to your fellow Malaysians and your descendents to at least make an informed choice at the ballot box, you need to first get registered.

It's a shame that even though Bolehland has supposedly one of the most sophisticated national ID card (our very own MyKad) the Election Commission (and by extension the current inept ruling party) sees it fit to continue with the archaic act of keeping a manual electoral roll which contains dead people (reminds me of "Sixth Sense"..."I can see dead people...lining up to vote") and much more. There is no automatic registration of your name into the roll, or auto update of your constituency as your address changes, even though we have a single authoritative database of all the residents in Malaysia located somewhere in the NRD office in Putrajaya (last I heard it was running MS SQL Server on an 8-way Unisys box).

Which brings us to the question of "how do I get myself into the archaic roll then?" Surprise, surprise, you could just drop into any of the post offices around the country which has a computer. The one where you can pay your bills (I pay everything online nowadays) is good enough. Just tell them you want to register as a voter, pass them your MyKad, and you're good to go...NOT! You see, since the electoral roll is sort of manual, the EC has a quarterly closing of the roll. It will take them anywhere from 3 to 6 months to get that latest closed roll approved and gazetted. In any elections, only the last gazetted electoral roll would be used. So, even though you have registered, it doesn't mean you could vote in the next called election (ask the 650,000 folks who didn't get to vote in the 1999 general elections). Since speculation is rife about the next General Election being called before the end of this year, it is likely that those who have registered post March 31 2007 would not see their names getting into the gazetted roll. The same process applies to those who are already registered voters, but have requested for an address/constituency change.

The other method is to go check out the pasar malam or pasar pagi around PJ SS2, PJ Paramount Garden, or PJ Kampung Sg Way. DAP almost always will have a booth to register new voters as well as requests to change constituency. However, due to resource constraint (let's face it...DAP is not like MCA which could afford hiring hands) sometimes you might not see the booths. But, it is an alternative if you find going into a post office is not an option.

So, how can you then determine if you are eligible to vote after you've registered yourself? The fastest way is to check out the EC website at www.spr.gov.my. The last I checked only the Bahasa Malaysia version works. If by keying in your MyKad number and you find the system spew out details of your constituency, then you're set to vote! If not, then check back again regularly. If by the time the sleeping PM decided to dissolve parliament and call for an election, and you still didn't get anything by checking the EC website, then sorry lah...you'll have to wait out this round.