by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in petaling Jaya on Tuesday, 6th February 1990:
Call on Election Commission to make a clear and definitive statement as to whether there would be a snap 21 day voters’ registration exercise in March
It is most significant that the Election Commission has been silent in a thousand tongues in not openly denying my statement that it has instructed State Election officials to get ready for a snap 21-day voters’ registration exercise beginning on March 1 primarily to register the 300,000 to 500,000 UMNO Baru members who are not on the Electoral Roll, although the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, has made his routine denial that the Government or UMNO Baru could direct the Election Commission to do its bidding.
I call on the Election Commission to make a clear and definitive statement as to whether there would be a snap 21-day voters’ registration exercise in March. It is scandalous that the Election Commission could not make a definitive statement about something which is to be held next month!
I call on the Election Commission to explain why it is so engrossed in preparing for the snap 21-day voters’ registration exercise when it has not completed the preparation of the 1989 Electoral Roll, to incorporate the new voters registered last year.
Now that I have made public the UMNO Baru’s directive to the Election Commission to conduct such a snap 21-day voters’ registration exercise, primarily to register the 300,000 to 500,000 UMNO Baru members who have not registered themselves as voters, the Government has to decide whether it is going ahead with the snap voters’ registration exercise as planned.
In fact, the decision of the Government or in fact UMNO Baru, on the snap voters’ registration exercise will influence the date of the next general elections.
The general elections could be called either in March this year, or after May, or after August.
If the UMNO Baru is set on the snap voters’ registration exercise to get its 300,000 to 500,000 members onto the Electoral Roll before a general elections, then the possibility of March general elections can be ruled out.
In fact, if the UMNO Baru wants to have the 300,000 to 500,000 members registered as voters first, then the second option of general elections after May can also be ruled out. This is because the Election Commission cannot complete the preparation of the new 1990 Electoral Roll incorporating the snap 21-day voters’ registration exercise planned for March 1 until well after July 1990, according to the time-table of the Election Commission itself.
Whether general elections will be in March, after May or after August will depend on how crucial and critical UMNO Baru leaders regard the snap 21-day voters’ registration exercise, whether they could dispense with it, now that it had been publicly exposed.
In any event, the possibility of the general elections in March, or after May or after August cannot