KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — The Election Commission (EC) will not expand postal voting to Sabah and Sarawak voters who reside in Peninsular Malaysia, for the time being.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of Parliament and Law Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin said under Federal Constitution (Article 119), an eligible voter is determined by their current address stated on the identification card.
“For now the EC has no plans to expand postal voting for Sabah and Sarawak voters who reside in Peninsular Malaysia.
“Postal voting will be allowed for those who are EC staff, election workers, the army and General Operations Force (PGA) who are on duty during early polling day, pressmen who are on duty and not able to return to the voting area, officers from nine other agencies, voters who are abroad, voters who cannot be present including civil servants stationed abroad (their spouse and family) and fulltime university students and their spouse who are abroad,” she told the Dewan Rakyat today.
The deputy minister said this in reply to Warisan’s Labuan MP Datuk Rozman Isli’s question as to whether the EC was considering allowing postal voting for those living far from registered polling stations, especially for the people of Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan, in view of drafting a more effective Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) for the 15th general election.
Mas Ermieyati added that it was the EC’s advice that voters in question apply to change their polling areas based on their current residential address to ease voting management for an election.
