(Oct 19): In a petition titled "Improve the postal voting system in Malaysia" sent to the Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday (Oct 19), Global Bersih called on the EC to set a campaign period of at least 21 to 25 days to allow sufficient time for postal ballots to be received and returned by overseas voters.

The EC will be meeting on Thursday to decide on the election time frame.

During the 14th general election (GE14), Malaysians living overseas struggled to receive and return ballots in time due to an extremely short 11-day campaign period. Overseas voters should not have to face these difficulties again in the GE15, especially as these problems have been repeatedly brought to the attention of the EC in the past. A short campaign period also makes it challenging for the EC to be able to print and send out ballots in time.

Given that the potential number of overseas voters has significantly increased, and that there will be additional difficulties for the distribution and return of ballots during the monsoon season and the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a real risk that overseas voters will again face huge difficulties in exercising their right to vote through the postal voting process.

These problems will be aggravated by the significant increase in the pool of overseas postal voters. The lowering of the voting age to 18 and the implementation of automatic voter registration will result in the growth of over five million new eligible voters, many of whom would be living overseas. The inclusion of Malaysians living in Singapore, South Thailand, Brunei, and Kalimantan in the overseas postal voting system and the possibility of registering online to vote by post will also result in much higher numbers of overseas postal voters.

With a larger proportion of postal voters in the overall number of voters, the EC must take into serious consideration the requirements for the postal voting system to function effectively when setting the time frame for the GE15.

The petition, supported by over 5,000 signatories, also urges the EC to allow non-Malaysians to act as witnesses for the postal ballot documents to facilitate the voting process for overseas voters in areas where there are few Malaysians. After failed attempts to hand over the petition physically to the EC, Global Bersih has sent the petition per email.

Global Bersih is an international movement of overseas Malaysians, created to support Malaysian civil society’s work and strengthen Malaysia’s maturing democracy, using peaceful and legal means of action.

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