KUANTAN, 8 FEBRUARY, 2012: A total of 148,196 people who are of voting age in Pahang have yet to register as electors, representing 17 per cent of the total number of people who have yet to do so throughout the country, state Election Commission (EC) director Othman Noh said.

"The registration of electors in Pahang, however, is showing an upward trend with 698,473 people registered up until the third quarter of last year compared to 662,225 in 2010," he told reporters here.

He added that the commission would take various steps to register these new voters apart from the registration drives carried out by political parties.

The state EC has also removed 18,000 names from the electoral roll due to various reasons including death.

He also said that the state EC was ready to face the 13th general election.

"Our preparation is now at 75 per cent. We've identified 12,343 people to be appointed election workers. We've put in place all the major preparations; the rest would be ready by April," he added.

There are 515 polling centres and 1,528 polling streams in Pahang, which has 42 state and 14 parliamentary constituencies.

- Bernama