KUCHING, March 18 — There is no guarantee that changing of voters’ addresses to facilitate postal voting would not be abused, said Datuk Nelson Balang Rining.
The Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) secretary-general was reacting to Election Commission’s (EC) plans to not extend yet the postal voting category to Sabah and Sarawak voters who are residing in Peninsular Malaysia in the 15th General Election (GE15).
“As much as we want them to vote, we can’t ask them to come back, missing the opportunity to exercise their democratic right. Changing addresses can be misused, too,” said Balang, who is a newly appointed political secretary to the Premier of Sarawak.
“There are pros and cons of not doing so. Some Sarawakians are in Malaya because of employment opportunities, etc. They are not permanently staying there, likewise people from Semenanjung who work in Sarawak or other states,” he said.
On March 16, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin told the Parliament in Kuala Lumpur that the EC had recommended voters to apply for change of voting constituency based on their latest place of residence.
“Article 119 of the Federal Constitution stipulates that one of the qualifications to be registered as a voter is to be a resident in any constituency. For that purpose, the EC determines a voter’s constituency based on the voter’s address as stated in the identity card,” she said during the question and answer session.
She was responding to a question from Datuk Rozman Isli (Warisan-Labuan) who wanted to know 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 its drafting of a more effective Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) for GE15.
Mas Ermieyati said only voters in certain categories were allowed to vote by mail; like the EC staff, election officials, military, police, members of the General Operations Force on duty during early voting, media practitioners who are covering elections outside their constituency on polling day and Malaysians abroad.
She said the facility was also given to staff of nine agencies including the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department, Prisons Department, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, volunteers and staff of the Immigration Department on duty on polling day, as well as absent voters, namely civil servants serving abroad and their spouses, as well as full-time university students studying overseas and their spouses. — Borneo Post
