PENANG: PADU (Central Database Hub) registration receives only lukewarm response in Penang, as the state is ranked third from the bottom.

As of Wednesday, a total of 180,084 people or 14.3% of the state’s population aged 18 and above had registered for PADU, said Penang Statistics Department Director Khairolnizam Hassan.

“Based on the population of Penang, 8,000 to 10,000 people should be registering for PADU on a daily basis, but we only have 2,000 to 3,000 people a day,” he said.

He urged members of the public to register early before the March 31 deadline to avoid the rush at the eleventh hour.

Khairolnizam was with state tourism and creative economy committee chairman Wong Hon Wai inspecting the counters set up to help people register at the hall of Block 7A, Bandar Baru Farlim, Ayer Itam on Wednesday.

Khairolnizam said civil servants made up 72% or 69,000 of PADU registrants in Penang.

Registration counters have been set up at government departments, banks, post offices, government hospitals and government clinics to assist the people.

According to the Statistics Department, only 3.08 million of the 30.08 million Malaysians automatically registered by their system have signed up and verified their details on PADU as of Feb. 13.

Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said the highest registrations were recorded in Sarawak, Selangor, Johor, Perlis and Kelantan.