The Election Commission (EC) is mulling over the proposal to allow representatives to receive the Priority Envelope on behalf of postal voters who are away from home because of work.

EC secretary Abdul Ghani Salleh said the proposal was aimed at ensuring that the Priority Envelope containing the postal ballot papers would reach the postal voters and thus, enable them to cast their votes.

"Prior to this, some postal voters could not cast their votes as the Priority Envelope could not be delivered to them because they were away from home because of work.

"Existing regulations do not allow the Priority Envelope to be handed over to representatives of postal voters," he said in a statement on the 13th General Election Post-Mortem Report today.

The post-mortem, which were held simultaneously by each states, were completed last July with cooperation from all quarters, including the General Election Enforcement Team leader, representatives of polling districts, supervisors of polling centres, police and the Armed Forces.

Abdul Ghani said the issue of allowing representatives to receive the Priority Envelope on behalf of postal voters was among the recommendations received by EC during the post mortem which aimed at identifying weaknesses and improvement measures needed to ensure that the management and the electoral process would run smoothly according to the law.

He said to ensure a more efficient management of postal ballot papers, the EC would also improve the procedures of sending and receiving the sacks for postal ballot papers by the police or army courier to overcome delays in taking the sacks to the counting centre.

"The EC has also made some arrangements with Pos Malaysia Berhad so that it will continue its operation on weekends for the purpose of sending postal ballot papers to voters abroad," he said.

Advance screenings

In order to address the congestion issue at polling centres, particularly those with many channels, he said the EC would consider the need to turn suitable premises in the constituency into polling centres.

"The EC has also agreed that each polling centre must only have the maximum number of 3,850 voters with only six polling channels," he said.

Abdul Ghani said to address the difficulty of verifying bankruptcy status, the EC would discuss with political parties to find a suitable method to allow advance screenings be made with the Department of Insolvency.

He said the EC would also pay attention to the proposal to have trainings and briefings for election officials and party agents be carried out more effectively to ensure they fully understand the election procedures and jargons to avoid confusion.

Abdul Ghani said the EC had also agreed that the recruitment of civil servants as EC staff in the future would be based on their grades to facilitate understanding of the electoral process and leadership among the staff concerned.

He said the EC had also been urged to improve the weaknesses in the announcement of election results by the returning officer at each constituency to avoid negative perceptions and untoward incidents among supporters of the contesting parties.

Indelible ink

About the use of the indelible ink, Abdul Ghani said the EC had made some improvements, especially in terms of the ingredients in the ink, method of storage, changing the procedure from having the ink smeared on the voter's finger to dipping the finger into the ink, and providing guidelines for poll clerks to prevent double voting.

"These improvements were seen during the state by-elections in Kuala Besut, Terengganu, and Sungai Limau, Kedah," he said.

On the issue of different localities despite living under the same roof, Abdul Ghani said the designation of the locality was made based on the address on the applicant's identity card, which would also determine the polling centre for the applicant.

"Therefore, voters must ensure that the address on their identity card is correct and accurate," he said.

Clarifying the issue of many voters registered using the same address, such as the cases in Kg Sungai Pusu, Gombak, and Pandamaran, Klang, Abdul Ghani said EC's investigation found that it occurred because the voters had used the same address as their mailing address.

He said this was a normal practice in squatter settlements as they needed a common mailing address that was easily accessed by the postmen.

- Bernama