Opposition Leader Fadzil Noor today slammed the tabling of nine amendments to the Federal Constitution when the current parliamentary session is scheduled to end tomorrow.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Rais Yatim tabled the amendments to the Constitution this afternoon which involved mostly registration of voters.

While debating the amendments to Article 119 of Constitution, PAS MP for Pendang Fadzil Noor said that more time should be given to debating the amendments.

"We are representing the people in this House. This is the people's right. We should be given more time to debate these amendments," he said in Parliament.

The amendments propose that a person must be registered as a voter in the constituency in which he resides in on the qualifying date before he can vote in an election.

Under the proposed clause 1(A), if the electoral roll for the constituency is published in the Gazette, the inclusion of a person in the electoral roll will be conclusive evidence that he or she is properly registered in the roll.

The amendments also seek to amend clause (4) of Article 119 which states that the 'qualifying date' is no longer the date by reference to which the electoral rolls are prepared or revised but instead the date on which a person applies for registration or change of registration as a voter in a constituency.

The amendments also seek to amend Article 114 to increase the number of election commissioners from the present five to seven.

"It is hoped with this amendments, the efficiency and registration of voters will be streamlined and improved," said Rais when tabling the amendments.

Burmese voters

The opposition leader lamented that Parliament has become a 'rubber stamp' and amendments to the Constitution are an attempt to ensure the continuity of the ruling party.

Fadzil questioned whether the decision to amend Article 119 came about after an Elections Court in Sabah recently ruled null and void the Likas state election in Sabah two years ago on the grounds that the electoral roll contained 'phantom' voters.

He urged the government to drop the idea of amending Article 119 to ensure that election results and voters' list could not be challenged in court.

"This is against the people's democratic rights. Phantom voters have been existing for a long time and have only been lately challenged in court," he said.

Fadzil requested clarification on the term 'residence' and whether it referred to people who lived permanently in a given location as there were people who voted out of their registered constituencies.

He also queried whether the process of registration will be conducted efficiently.

"Will the process of displaying the voters' lists and allowing for protest before gazetting be still allowed?" asked Fadzil.

He also raised the issue of false identity cards and claimed that in Langkawi, there were 6,000 Burmese who possessed Malaysian identity cards which allowed them to take part in the last general elections.

Gender safeguard

Rais announced other amendments to the Constitution which included:

- to provide that work or service which is required to be performed in consequence of a conviction in a court of law shall not be taken to be forced labour if carried out under the supervision and control of a public authority (Article 6, clause 3);

- to prohibit discrimination based on gender (Article 8, clause 2);

- the posts of deputy president of the senate and deputy speaker of the house of representatives to be made full time posts (clause 5 and 6);

- to enable those elected or appointed for senatorship in the event that a senator dies or leaves office to hold office for a period of three years, a senator's full term of service ( clause 4 and 13);

- to increase the age of the retirement for the House speaker and his deputy House from 55 to the compulsory retirement age required by the service (Article 65);

- to validate any action that might have been taken using the title 'Chief of Defence Forces' (Article 137, subclause 10(3);

- to prescribe the national language translation of the Federal Constitution to be the authoritative text (Article 160, clause 11, 12, 14).