He said the Government had in principle agreed to the proposal made by the commission.

This means all Malaysians aged 21 years and above will have their names in the electoral roll and will be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote during a general election or by-election.

The system, Abdul Rashid said, was practised in several other countries.

At present, Malaysians when they turn 2l need to register with the commision during the 42-day annual registration exercise.

The electoral roll then takes several months to be verified and gazetted, and only then the registrants are able to vote.

In an interview at his office here, Abdul Rashid said the commission would work with the National Registration Department to update the electoral roll.

The NRD would automatically provide particulars of the eligible voters to the commission's database.

Abdul Rashid said the commission decided to introduce the new system, among others, because the turnout during the annual voter registration exercise was low.

He said although checks with the NRD revealed that about 1.2 million Malaysians attained the age of 21 annually, only about 10 per cent registered as voters.

"Recent figures showed only 100,000 Malaysians registered during such an exercise. "

Abdul Rashid said under the new system, the constituency where the voter would be able to vote would be based on the address provided to the NRD.

"We realise this is a big problem as Malaysians are very mobile.

"We are worried that by the time we send a card to a new voter informing him of his status and constituency where he should vote, he may have moved."

He said eligible voters should inform the NRD whenever they' changed address so this could be reflected in the database provided to the commission.

The National Registration Act requires Malaysians to inform the NRD within 90 days if they changed address but this was neither strictly enforced nor complied with.

Abdul Rashid said the NRD had also given an undertaking that it would be able to furnish the new identity cards to those who reached 21 years within two weeks.

"This will make the electoral roll cleanest possible."

(Malaysians are issued identity cards upon reaching 12 years of age. However, they are required to change these when they turn 18.)

Elaborating, Abdul Rashid said the issue of non-citizens who possessed false identity cards being able to register as voters, would also no longer arise as the NRD would not have their records.

Asked when the new system would come into effect, Abdul Rashid said the relevant laws needed to be amended first.

However, the proposed amendments would be submitted to the Cabinet soon.