Malaysians living in nine major cities across the world are unable to register as new voters at their respective missions, a survey by Global Bersih has revealed.

The survey was undertaken by Global Bersih city coordinators, who made enquiries at 10 cities - Singapore, Canberra, Melbourne, Wellington, Hong Kong, Chennai, Washington DC, New York City, London and The Hague (Netherlands) - between Aug 31 and Sept 23.

The survey’s main intention was to determine whether Malaysians living abroad were able to register as new voters at overseas missions.

Malaysia’s high commission in Singapore stands out as the sole overseas mission in the survey to openly and efficiently offer facilities for both voter registration and postal voting to Malaysians abroad.

In some of the other cases, mission officials said the Election Commission (EC) needed to authorise any such registration programme.

Such exercises have previously been rolled out by the EC, which needs to either formally appoint assistant registrar officers at overseas missions, or extend the tenure for officials who have acted as AROs before.

In Canberra, officers said anything to do with voting was first subject to the EC making the announcement.

Sluggish services

In one embassy in the US, a Malaysian who persisted in trying to get conclusive information on voter registration was eventually told by an officer that an embassy email to the EC enquiring on the matter had received no response.

The same embassy said that they had previously provided ‘Borang A’ (application form for voter registration) to Malaysians who visited their office, but they had now run out of such forms.

It was not made clear why the embassy itself was unable to offer printed copies of a form that anybody may download from the EC's website.

Other missions told Malaysians they had to visit the EC's website, download the application form and submit the form to the EC themselves when they next visit Malaysia.

Comments such as ‘every election is different’ and ‘we have to wait for the EC’ were made in response to separate enquiries in different countries.

Andrew Yong, a spokesman for the MyOverseasVote campaign for voting rights for Malaysians overseas, said it was regrettable that the EC appeared to be making it difficult for Malaysians who turn 21 overseas to register as new voter.

“Voter registration for new voters should be an ongoing process that takes place four times a year, not only just before a general election,” said Yong.

However, in Singapore, it took all of 20 minutes for a citizen to physically submit an application to register as a new voter, including time spent in the queue.

The high commission in Singapore also offered detailed information on the application and confirmation procedure, and said a letter of confirmation would be sent to the registrant’s Singapore address.

Meanwhile, the survey results showed that email enquiries at two overseas missions – one in Australia, the other in India - went unanswered.

Incorrect, outdated info
 

At the time of the survey, it was also found that high commissions in London and Wellington were providing incorrect and out-of-date information on postal voting.

This could potentially result in Malaysians being wrongly told that they are not eligible to become postal voters.

Officers in London and Wellington missions said only government servants, holders of government scholarships and uniformed personnel were entitled to the postal vote.

But in fact, the categories of people entitled to the postal vote were expanded to include most registered voters living overseas, just months before the 13th general election was held on May 5 2013.

The expansion of postal-vote categories was the result of an extended legal challenge by six Malaysians who took the EC to court in order to end the practice of ‘discrimination by law’ and open up the overseas vote to all eligible Malaysians.

As a result of that successful legal challenge, on Apr 29 2013, thousands of Malaysians who had been previously barred from the postal vote were able to cast their ballots overseas for the first time in Malaysia’s history.

In Australia alone, about 1,700 postal votes were cast at various missions on the day, which happened to coincide with the first anniversary of Bersih’s third rally.

Clock ticking on GE

Responding to the survey results, Global Bersih spokesperson Lydia Chai said the EC did not seem to be treating the matter with urgency.

“If GE14 is called in the first quarter of 2017, the last opportunity for eligible Malaysians to register as voters will be the end of this month (Sep 30),” she said.

“The EC needs to facilitate registrations and let us know how we can vote from overseas again.”

Chai also offered assistance to the EC, saying it was welcome to enlist Global Bersih's help in disseminating the correct information to Malaysians overseas.

Late last year, the former head of the EC, Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, told Malay Mail Online an estimated four million Malaysians had not registered as voters, despite meeting all eligibility requirements.

Other sources with knowledge of the electoral rolls estimate six million Malaysians have never registered to vote.

WILLIAM DE CRUZ is former Global Bersih president.