I just want to share my experience and voice out my comments and concerns as one of the postal voters at the Malaysian Consulate General Melbourne, yesterday (April 28, 2013).

I was quite lucky to arrive early at the consulate yesterday morning for postal voting, at 9.15am and had to wait for about 20 minutes queuing.

Many of us had to wait for two to three hours in a long queue at the consulate yesterday.

I think the consulate was not quite ready to run the important event like this. Some of the officers in charge do not understand or overlook some election procedures, rules and regulations.

I doubt the Election Commission had advised them properly. Based on my general observation when I was there up to 10.30am, there were at least five important things that the officers in the consulate misunderstood or overlooked:

1. The confirmation slip of overseas voter should not be the requirement of identity to vote. The requirement of identity to vote is only the passport or IC. The request for voters to present the confirmation slips is ultra vires EC rules and regulations, as no notice or rules prescribes such a requirement.

2. There should be at least a representative from the consulate other than the security officers at the entrance of polling station (the lanes) for voters to refer or ask questions. Unfortunately, the security officers who supervised the lanes are Australians, who know nothing about Malaysian election rules, regulations, and procedures.

3. There were only two lanes in the polling station, one for Selangor, Kedah and Negri Sembilan, and another for other states. I do not think two lanes were adequate for about 1,000 registered postal voters here in Melbourne. This caused delays and a very long queue from early morning up to closing time at 8pm.

4. There should be a lane for the disabled, aged and pregnant women to enable them to vote easily. I saw a pregnant woman who had to wait in a long queue for about an hour before she could get in the polling station.

5. Based on my general observation, on one occasion, the officer cum 'witness' in one of the polling rooms seemed to direct or compel the voters to sign the voting form in front of him, mark the vote and put the vote in the postal box provided, even though the EC procedures clearly provides that the postal voters could choose to prefer anybody to become his/her witness in the voting form and has the right to send the vote by any means to Malaysia before the prescribed date.

6. The EC/consulate should appoint more officers for this big event. A limited number of staff affects the smooth running of voting process.

Thank you for the opportunity to vote from here in Melbourne.