Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (May 7): The Global Bersih movement, which has accused Malaysia's Election Commission (EC) of sabotaging its own overseas postal voting system for the upcoming 14th general election (GE14), says today that over 35,000 Malaysians have signed its online petition that calls on the EC chairman to explain the issue.

In an emailed statement today, the movement said the number of signees collected to the petition clearly shows dissatisfaction with the overseas voting procedure that was established after the 2012 Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform.

The chief issue that led to the sabotage claim is the short 11-day campaign period, according to the online petition, hash-tagged #SPRTipu, started by Global Bersih-Malaysians Across Borders, to EC chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah.

"Postal ballot papers can only be printed after nomination day, when candidates for each constituency are known.

"Between nomination day on Saturday, April 28, and polling day on Wednesday, May 9, there are only 6½ working days. May 1 is Labour Day, while May 9 has been gazetted as an additional public holiday for the general election.

"It is believed that the earliest day that overseas postal ballots can be sent out is on May 2, after the Labour Day public holiday, leaving only 4½ working days for ballots to be sent out and returned by courier," it stated.

The petition went on to note that Pos Malaysia's website shows that delivery times for their international Express Mail Service are 2-4 working days for Australia, 3-5 working days for the United Kingdom, 3-6 working days for the United States and Germany, 4-5 working days for New Zealand, 4-6 working days for France, 4-7 working days for Ireland, and 5-7 working days for the Netherlands and Italy.

"Many Malaysian overseas postal voters may therefore only receive their postal ballots after polling day on May 9, certainly too late for them to be returned in time to be counted," it added.

During GE13 in 2013, which was the first time Malaysian voters living overseas — except in Singapore, southern Thailand, Kalimantan and Brunei — could vote by post, the delivery and return of Malaysian overseas postal votes were undertaken by Wisma Putra, with Malaysian overseas postal voters filling out their postal votes at Malaysian embassies and high commissions overseas.

But for GE14, the EC, has announced that postal ballots for Malaysian voters living overseas will be sent by Pos Malaysia, and will need to be returned by voters themselves so that the postal ballots are received by the relevant constituency returning officer by 5pm on polling day, May 9.

However, logistics problems — which culminated in late delivery of ballot papers or missing ballot papers, according to many who are eligible to vote overseas — have sparked mounting frustration and anger towards what is seen as the EC's lack of foresight.

 

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