Losing confidence with the Election Commission’s (EC) pledge that laws will be amended for Malaysians abroad to vote as postal voters in the next general election, some overseas voters have launched campaigns calling on fellow citizens to return to the country to vote.

MyOverseasVote (MOV), a group formed by overseas Malaysians to lobby for their voting rights in the next general election, said in a statement issued last Friday that the proposal to enable overseas Malaysians to vote has yet to be implemented since it was first considered by the commission in February, 2011, almost two years ago.

It pointed out that the EC has repeatedly missed the implementation deadlines since the proposal was accepted by the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reform in April this year.

MOV has compiled the chronology of the issue:

  • On April 3, 2012, the PSC confirmed the recommendation in its final report and gave the EC a three-month deadline (until July 3, 2012) to make the necessary arrangements with the government departments to implement its recommendation.
  • On July 11, 2012, having missed the PSC’s deadline, EC chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said : “The system can be implemented by September if we have to amend the law, but it can be done earlier than that (if legal amendments are not needed).”
  • On Sept 14, 2012, two weeks before the start of the last Dewan Rakyat sitting before the next general election, Abdul Aziz said that the Attorney-General’s Chambers was still studying whether an amendment to the Election Act was needed before the proposal could be implemented.
  • On Oct 19, 2012, EC deputy chief Wan Ahmad Wan Omar announced that starting November, overseas citizens can use Form 1 to apply as postal voters . The form will be available for download on the Internet and through embassies.
  • On Dec 3, 2012, having missed the end of the final Dewan Rakyat of this Parliament, EC secretary Kamaruddin Mohamed Baria was quoted in English daily The Sun as saying that: “The EC is finalising the policy, planning logistics, labour and financial provisions to implement this system effectively. After that, the EC will amend the Election (Postal Voting) Regulations 2003.”
On the repeated “deceit and inaction”, MOV reminded the EC that it has its own legal staff and a RM700 million budget, and is given wide rule-making powers both by Article 113(5) of the federal constitution and by the Elections Act 1958.

“As we come to the closing days of 2012, we have to note that unless the amendments to the Postal Voting Regulations 2003 are made soon, there is no way that one million overseas Malaysians will be able to register to vote by post in time for the next general election,” it said.

Bid for expedited hearing date

MOV has since instructed the lawyers of the six Malaysians who are suing the EC for refusing to register them as absent voters, to write to the Court of Appeal to ask for an expedited hearing date.

Previously, the lawyers had agreed to delay the hearing of the appeal in order to give the EC the chance to amend the regulations and lay them before the Dewan Rakyat before the final sitting from September to November 2012.

The group is currently working with fellow Malaysians around the world to mobilise as many Malaysians as possible to return to Malaysia to vote in the next general election.

“For many, the financial cost and time will be too great, but we are hopeful at least that a large number of the 400,000 Malaysians working in Singapore will be able to return to Malaysia in order to exercise their democratic rights.”

Therefore it has endorsed the JomBalikUndi campaign and in particular Singapore Bersih’s initiative to organise car-pooling for Malaysians needing to return to Malaysia to vote.

“That Malaysians overseas have been forced to organise these initiatives speaks volumes of their lack of faith in the EC, which has time and time again let down Malaysians with its repeated delays and continued inaction.

“We can only surmise that for the last two years the EC has been hoping that the prime minister would call a general election before the regulations are amended so that it would not have to organise postal voting for Malaysians overseas,” read MOV’s statement.

The EC has earlier announced that voters who register themselves before Dec 31 could still vote if the 13th general election is called in February or March 2013.

For Malaysians abroad, although they still cannot vote through postal ballots as the laws have yet to be amended, the EC has called on them to register as ordinary voters with the Malaysian embassies before they are allowed to register as postal voters.

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