'All East Malaysians living in West Malaysia should be allowed to vote as postals voters for their respective constituencies in Sabah and Sarawak.'
Postal votes to be extended to all M'sians overseas
Ben-ghazi: I will believe it when it finally happens, not before. The Election Commission is fond of announcing this and that, and they seem to love the publicity, especially the wrong kind.
EC deputy chief Wan Ahmad Wan Omar is forever making announcements and writing stupid articles. That's its standard. I was overseas as a student for a period of eight years and a worker for two years, but was never able to cast my vote during my years overseas.
Muak: What does EC chief Abdul Aziz Yusof mean when he said the extension of votes to overseas Malaysians will "hopefully happen in the next general election"?
He is paid by the taxpayers to make sure it happens.
Jedi_Who: Hopefully? You have big offices and a lot of perks, with many resources working for you. About every four years you have an election, a few by-elections with just under 15 million voters. How difficult can your job be?
Please implement the necessary election changes Pakatan Rakyat has put forward. It is not difficult to do.
Ketuanan Rakyat: The issue with postal votes is that candidate's representative is not present to ensure the voter is making his own choice when voting.
From what we know, there is a possibility that others may vote on behalf of the voter in the absence of independent observer or the candidate's representative.
There is no confidence in the EC's handling of the postal votes which seems to favour Umnoputras most of the time.
Bob Teoh: All East Malaysians living in West Malaysia should be allowed to vote as postals voters for their respective constituencies in Sabah and Sarawak.
Blogsmith: Let's us pray and hope that Umno-BN will not use this extension of postal voters to engage in malpractices such as the switching of votes, as it will be very difficult for candidates to have polling agents overseas where postal voting occurs.
Ghkok: Malaysians who want to vote overseas comprise a very small percentage of the total number of voters. The EC is just toying with the rakyat. The questionable postal votes, which are those from the army, police, etc, are still unsolved.
The four retired military guys who came out to say that they were told to mark ballot papers - who gave them the instruction to mark ballot papers? What is EC doing about that? The top military brass gave the instructions? Isn't that treason?
For Truth & Justice: Please remember that if the campaign period is too short, there will not be enough time to get the ballots to the embassies, vote, get them back here, validate/verify all processes (as you will also need polling agents there).
Try a guess at how much time for the ballots to get from Malaysia to overseas and back (safely). Imagine the time taken, as 8-10 days will definitely not be enough.
You will be disappointed if you get to vote but the ballots arrive late back in Malaysia. I'm all for longer campaign and preparation period.
AnakBangsaMalaysia: I am deeply skeptical of this sudden turnaround from the EC after months of partisan statements and denials in the face of overwhelming evidence of electoral fraud.
It appears that this may yet be another desperate face-saving measure to buy time for PM Najib Razak after the immediate failure of his PSC (parliamentary select committee) proposal.
All the postal votes in the world will not help if the institution that is charged with ensuring free and fair elections is itself corrupt and partisan - as is currently the case.
Ferd Tan: Knowing the state of affairs in the EC, the extension of postal votes to all Malaysians overseas is not at all pleasing to hear without clear rules and procedures spelt out. Facts in the nutshell: we don't trust the leadership behind the EC.
We hear of many instances of dubious postal votes, unauthorised marking of votes for other voters, switching of postal bags containing marked votes, and even the throwing of postal bags into the river.
Can the political parties' representatives from either side of divide be allowed to observe and participate in checking the authenticity of the whole process? Can the political parties representatives be allowed to put their seal on the postal bags to ensure that there are no illegal switching of the postal bags?
Or is it possible at some large overseas centres to count at the end of the day, in front of all representatives, and send the results back to the country?
Until we hear further, we reserve comment.
Wira: When thing sounds too good to be true, it means the election is near. Promises are meant to be broken anyway especially when there is the perfect excuse of not being able to implement because time does not permit.
Lexicon: We should applaud such a move, though we would be right to doubt the sincerity of the EC. We should also applaud Bersih for the transformation it is bringing to Malaysian society.
But we must also maintain vigilance, because the EC has clearly demonstrated partisanship in favour of BN. We can foresee many postal votes coming from non-existent voters abroad.
The EC must clean up the postal vote among the military and police, and offer a free and transparent postal vote to Sarawakians and Sabahans in the peninsula, instead of forcing them to jump through hoops to change their addresses in their MyKads.
Most Sarawakians and Sabahans would prefer to maintain their home addresses because they are only working in the peninsula, but they want to hold on to their unchanged identity as Sarawakians and Sabahans.
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