The current flare up in the Bar Council in relation to postal votes interests me as an accountant.

While I don't wish to take sides, I wish to say that how a 'postal vote' arrives at the destination is not as important as the contents of that vote.

Surely law drafters did not mean to be pedantic to refer the 'postal vote' as votes that arrive via the postal system only. A better and more reasonable definition would be votes that are not cast in person on the day itself.

As I understand, the postal votes are sealed in an envelope. Therefore there is no question of a 'carrier' of those votes employing bullying tactics to ensure those whose vote they carry vote for them and not anyone else.

If someone comes and ask me for my ballot paper and I do not wish to give it to them, I can always say so or even say that I have already posted it.

The Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) has a similar sort of system. Candidates for council positions even go as far as requesting members to send their votes and proxy forms to them so that they can deliver it to MIA office or to the box on the day of voting.

Being a member of MIA, I do not see anything sinister or illegal about that. It is only because we do not trust our postal system that some of us rely on this method. Otherwise, we will not have an army of despatch people running around delivering documents when we could have relied on our famed PosLaju.

The important issue is whether the votes were tampered with or forged, which is a bit more difficult to undertake as any sort of amendments or additions will most certainly render the ballot papers as invalid.

I am sure it was never Parliament's intention to restrict the process involved in the postal votes as the Accountants Act which was updated after the Legal Profession Act did not contain any restriction on this matter, clearly proving that it was never a concern.

I believe many other professional bodies will also be keeping a vigil on this postal vote issue as it will have an impact on how others conduct their voting process as well.