I refer to the Election Commission's recent statement that the Batu Talam by-election would be fair and transparent. If so, I hope that in all future elections, they will allow agents of contesting candidates not only to witness the sorting and counting of the postal votes, but also the most crucial event of all, that is the actual voting process itself, which includes the following steps:-

• Witnessing that all the ballot boxes were empty to start with;

I am sure the EC understands that the main suspicion about postal votes is not so much about the vote sorting part of it or even about the counting of the votes in the ballot boxes. It is about the ability of the ballot boxes to be switched, with pre-marked voting papers, since no agents of the contesting candidates have so far been allowed to witness the three steps mentioned above, unlike for normal non-postal votes.

Please do not talk about the EC being independent, since it does not report to Parliament but rather to the Executive, which has a vested interest in the outcome of any election. Hence, the high possibility and probability of the EC being coerced into allowing agents of the ruling party to do a switching of the ballot boxes.

This allegation of cheating becomes more believable when results of the postal votes sometimes show only a 5% in favour of opposition candidates, especially in constituencies that otherwise would be very closely contested. There have been too many cases in the past where BN candidates were saved by lop-sided postal votes results.

A better alternative, for the sake of national decency and dignity, is to limit postal voting to voters residing overseas only. There is no reason why soldiers and policemen cannot come out and vote like ordinary voters. With this move, the electoral playing field will become less uneven.