DAP Youth national chief Teo Kok Seong has urged the Election Commission (EC) to allow all political parties to appoint assistant registration officers (ARO) to boost voter registration in Malaysia.

In late May, it had already handed a memorandum to the EC requesting this, but he said the EC's response was unsatisfactory.

The EC said they were unable to allow ARO appointments from political parties as they were still examining and coordinating the current voter registration system.

"I want to ask EC how much longer do they need to examine and coordinate the system? Two years have passed, what is the result of their examination?" Teo ( photo ) asked in a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Since the last general election in 2013, the EC has stopped registering members of political parties as AROs.

However, in April, electoral watchdog Bersih has criticised the EC for allowing Department of Special Affairs (Jasa) personnel to become AROs.

Many of these Jasa personnel appointed as AROs have links to BN component parties, Teo said, making it seem like the ban of AROs from political parties was to stop the opposition from registering voters.

"We conclude that the opposition parties can be said to have lost the right to register new voters," he said.

Automatic registration shot down by EC

In the memorandum to the EC in May, DAP Youth had also asked that every citizen over the age of 21 be automatically registered as voters, but it was also shot down by the EC.

"They said it can't be done because it involves amending the constitution and the cost to do automatic registration is too high," Teo said.

It would involve amending Article 119 of the Federal Constitution, he was told, which states that every citizen who is above the age of 21, is a resident in a constituency or is an absent voter and is registered in the electoral roll on the qualifying date.

In light of this setback, he is asking Malaysian youths to go register themselves as voters.

"I want to call on our youths who love the country and who want to do something to help our country, the most important thing is to make sure we are registered as voters.

"We must make preparations so that in the future general elections, we can vote and voice our opinions," he said.