An inter-religious body of minority faiths staged a nationwide drive yesterday to get millions of people to register to vote, ahead of expected general elections early next year.

At a recent press conference, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism said there are as many as 4.3 million eligible voters in the country who are not on the electoral roll.

“If you don’t register and vote, it’s like saying you don’t care how your country is run,” said the council’s president Daozhang Tan Hoe Chieow in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Bishop Antony Selvanayagam of Penang, the council’s Penang branch president, said while the Catholic Church does not tell people to vote for a particular political party, “we encourage good citizenship and good governance.”

“If you are not happy with the government or the lawmaker in your area, you can change that by voting. Vote because you care about your community” he added.

He was speaking at a registration drive being held at the Malaysian Buddhist Association building in Penang yesterday. Similar events were held simultaneously in the 11 state capitals in peninsular Malaysia as well as in Kuala Lumpur.