KOTA KINABALU, Nov 7 — Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) reached a unanimous decision during its supreme council meeting that the registration of 18-year-old voters must not be automatic.

Although the party supported Undi18, it wants the registration be done manually. This is because of the situation in Sabah whereby the electoral rolls had been known to be polluted with the presence of phantom voters and the existence of dubious identity cards.

The presence of large numbers of illegal immigrants in Sabah is also a big worrying factor which is one of the pressing issues that need to be resolved urgently, said SAPP Deputy President cum Secretary-General Datuk Richard Yong.

"We support the Undi18 to take part in the democratic system but we don’t want the possibility of the democratic process being abused,” Richard added.

"The automatic registration of Undi18 is not ready for Sabah not until the issues of phantom voters, dubious ICs and illegal immigrants have been resolved. The voting rights must be safeguarded in order for people to elect the government of their choice.

"SAPP has been pushing for the issuance of Sabah ICs as a main solution to solve the dubious ICs problems, as Sabah ICs will be issued only to genuine Sabahan Malaysians.

"We want the SPR (Election Commission) to provide briefings for political parties on their implementation plans and method of how to conduct the registration of new voters before they start doing it,” he said. — Borneo Post