SEMENYIH, Feb 17 — The Election Commission (EC) today issued 234 postal ballot papers for the Semenyih state by-election, said its chairman Azhar Azizan Harun.
He said the papers were issued by election officials from the postal vote operations room at Metro Avenue, Kajang, here for various categories of postal voters.
He said 32 postal ballot papers were issued under the category of absent voters abroad, comprising civil servants and their spouses as well as full-time students and their partners in Australia, Germany, Romania, Russia, Iran, Austria, India, Morocco, Japan, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Brunei.
For applications for Form 1A (election workers, police and military personnel), there are 199 voters.
“Applications for Form 1B (Malaysian citizens who are overseas), there are three voters in South Korea and Japan. There is no issuance of the Form 1C (health and security personnel) as no applications were received,” he said in a statement today.
Azhar said the process of issuing postal ballot papers, which was aired live through the EC’s Facebook page, was done in the presence of independent representatives from Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional (BN), Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and Independent candidates.
He said the process was also witnessed by appointed election observers such as from Malaysia Corruption Watch, Tindak Malaysia and Institute of Darul Ehsan.
He said the ballot papers had been handed over to Pos Malaysia for delivery on the same day (Feb 17), while those for the police had been handed over to the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) for distribution.
Azhar reminded all postal voters to mark their ballot papers correctly and return them immediately to the returning officer of the Semenyih state by-election before 5 pm on polling date, which is March 2.
“Voters are also reminded not to take pictures of their postal ballot papers or viral it on social media. Action will be taken against offenders,” he said. — Bernama
