Voter turnout for postal voting at 100 Malaysian missions abroad on Sunday was about 70 percent, said Election Commission (EC) chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof.

According to him, 8,756 people were eligible to vote overseas and of the number, 6,092 turned up at the missions to hand in the envelopes containing the ballot slips.

He said no-shows stood at 2,633 voters and that they would have to post the envelopes containing the slips themselves to the respective returning officers (ROs) in Malaysia before 5pm on May 5 (polling day for the 13th general election (GE13).

“I’m very happy with the response from Malaysians overseas... I think by today and yesterday, we would have received the ballot bags,” he told reporters after checking on early voting by military personnel at the Wardieburn Camp in Jalan Genting Klang in Kuala Lumpur today.

Abdul Aziz said with more than 2,000 such voters, Australia recorded the highest turnout for overseas postal voting.

He said the diplomatic bags bringing the postal votes would be sent to state EC offices before being distributed to offices of ROs nationwide.

“A total of 100 Malaysian missions have sent in their reports on the postal voting process at their premises whereas three reported no turnout,” he said.

He added that the bags containing the postal votes and boxes with ballots via early voting would only be opened on polling day and counted together with normal votes.

- Bernama

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